Politics
US troops deploy toward Venezuela amid Trump’s opposition to Maduro
The Pentagon said the B‑1s launched from Dyess Air Force Base in Texas and flew over the Caribbean Sea toward Venezuela as part of routine training exercises.
A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed the flights occurred near Venezuelan shores but did not say whether the aircraft entered Venezuelan airspace.
The B‑1 Lancer capable of carrying the largest weapons payload in the U.S. Air Force, including long‑range cruise missiles joins a broader U.S. buildup in the region.
U.S. military activity has intensified since September, when American forces began striking vessels they say were used for drug trafficking near Venezuelan waters, an action President Donald Trump has cited publicly.
Last week, B‑52 Stratofortress bombers also patrolled the area, escorted by Marine Corps F‑35B stealth fighters based in Puerto Rico; the Pentagon described those flights as a demonstration of bomber strike capability.
When asked whether the B‑1 flights were intended to pressure Venezuela, President Trump replied: “It’s false, but we’re not happy with Venezuela for a lot of reasons. Drugs being one of them.”
Currently, eight U.S. warships are deployed in the Caribbean Basin, supported by a P‑8 Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft, MQ‑9 Reaper drones, an F‑35 squadron and a submarine operating near South American waters.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said U.S. forces have conducted nine airstrikes as part of an anti‑narcotics campaign, resulting in at least 37 reported deaths. He compared the operations to the post‑9/11 war on terror, warning: “We will find you, we will map your networks, we will hunt you down, and we will kill you.”
US Southern Command, which oversees Latin America and the Caribbean, is forming a task force for drug interdiction in the Western Hemisphere. This group appears set to handle the situation in Venezuela.
Covert CIA operation
The Trump administration has secretly authorized the CIA to conduct covert action in Venezuela, according to US officials, stepping up a campaign against President Nicolás Maduro, the country’s authoritarian leader, reported News York Times on Friday.
The authorization is the latest step in the Trump administration’s intensifying pressure campaign against Venezuela.
For weeks, the US military has been targeting boasts off the Venezuelan coast it says are transporting drugs, killing 27 people.
American officials have been clear, privately, that the end goal is to driver Mr Maduro from power.
Trump acknowledged on Wednesday that he had authorized the covert action and said the United States was considering strikes on Venezuelan territory.
“We are certainly looking at land now, because we’ve got the sea very well under control,” the president told reporters hours after The New York Times reported the secret authorization.
Any strikes on Venezuelan territory would be a significant escalation. After several of the boat strikes, the administration made the point that the operations had taken place in international waters.
The new authority would allow the CIA to carry out lethal operations in Venezuela and conduct a range of operations in the Caribbean.
The agency would be able to take covert action against Mr Maduro or his government either unilaterally or in conjunction with a larger military operation.
It is not known whether the CIA is planning any specific operations in Venezuela.
But the development comes as the US military is planning its own possible escalation, drawing up options for President Trump to consider, including strikes inside Venezuela.
The scale of the military buildup in the region is substantial: There are currently 10,000 U.S. troops there, most of them at bases in Puerto Rico, but also a contingent of Marines on amphibious assault ships. In all, the Navy has eight surface warships and a submarine in the Caribbean.
The new authorities, known in intelligence jargon as a presidential finding, were described by multiple US officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the highly classified document.
‘No crazy war, please!’
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Thursday launched a plea in English as tensions mount between Washington and Caracas: “No crazy war, please!”
Maduro’s comment came after US President Donald Trump said he had authorized covert action against the South American nation, and amid an escalating US military campaign against alleged drug traffickers in the Caribbean and Pacific.
“Yes peace, yes peace forever, peace forever. No crazy war, please!” Maduro said in a meeting with unions aligned with the leftist leader, a former bus driver and union leader.
The United States has deployed stealth warplanes and Navy ships as part of what it calls anti-narcotics efforts, but has yet to release evidence that its targets eight boats and a semi-submersible were smuggling drugs.
The US strikes, which began on September 2, have killed at least 37 people, according to an AFP tally based on US figures.
Regional tensions have flared as a result of the campaign, with Maduro accusing Washington of seeking regime change.
Late Thursday, the government in Trinidad and Tobago located just off Venezuela’s coast announced that a US warship would dock in its capital from October 26-30.
The Trinidadian foreign ministry said a unit of US Marines would conduct joint exercises with its defense forces.
Two of those killed in the US strikes were from Trinidad and Tobago.
Last week, Trump said he had authorized covert CIA action against Venezuela and was considering strikes against alleged drug cartels on land.
The Republican billionaire president accuses Maduro of heading a drug cartel, a charge the Venezuelan leader denies.
“We know the CIA is present” in Venezuela, the country’s defense minister Vladimir Padrino said Thursday.
“They may deploy — I don’t know how many — CIA-affiliated units in covert operations…and any attempt will fail.”
Padrino was overseeing military exercises along Venezuela’s coast in response to the US military deployment in the Caribbean.
Experts have questioned the legality of using lethal force in foreign or international waters against suspects who have not been intercepted or questioned.
- US tells UN it will cut Maduro, drug cartel off from resources.
- Russia warns US actions could set precedent for Latin America.
- China urges US to “avoid further escalation of tensions”.
The United States told the United Nations on Tuesday it will impose and enforce sanctions “to the maximum extent” to deprive Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro of resources as Russia warned other Latin American countries could be next.
US President Donald Trump’s administration has for months waged a campaign of deadly strikes against suspected drug trafficking boats off the Venezuelan coast and the Pacific coast of Latin America. He has threatened strikes on Venezuelan land.
“The single most serious threat to this hemisphere, our very own neighbourhood and the United States, is from transnational terrorist and criminal groups,” US Ambassador to the UN Mike Waltz told the UN Security Council.
The US has ramped up its military presence in the region and Trump announced a blockade of all vessels subject to US sanctions.
So far this month, the US Coast Guard has intercepted two tankers in the Caribbean Sea, both fully loaded with Venezuelan crude. The Coast Guard is also pursuing a third empty vessel that was approaching the OPEC country’s shore.
“The reality of the situation is that sanctioned oil tankers operate as the primary economic lifeline for Maduro and his illegitimate regime. The sanctioned tankers also fund the narco-terrorist group Cartel de Los Soles,” Waltz said.
Washington designated Cartel de los Soles, or Cartel of the Suns, as a foreign terrorist organisation late last month for the group’s alleged role in importing illegal drugs into the US. It accuses Maduro of leading Cartel de los Soles. Venezuela’s government rejected what it called a “ridiculous” move to designate the “non-existent” group.
“This intervention which is unfolding can become a template for future acts of force against Latin American states,” Russia’s UN Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia told the Security Council, citing a recent strategy document from Trump that said the US will reassert its dominance in the Western Hemisphere.
Waltz spoke after Nebenzia and did not directly respond to his remark.
China urged the United States to “immediately halt relevant actions and avoid further escalation of tensions,” China’s Deputy UN Ambassador Sun Lei told the council.
Venezuela, backed by Russia and China, requested Tuesday’s meeting, the second held on the escalating tensions.
The Security Council first met in October, when the United States justified its actions as consistent with Article 51 of the founding UN Charter, which requires the Security Council to be immediately informed of any action states take in self-defence against armed attack.
“Let it be clear once and for all that there is no war in the Caribbean, there is no international armed conflict, nor is there a non-international one, which is why it is absurd for the US government to seek to justify its actions by applying the rules of war,” Venezuela’s UN Ambassador Samuel Moncada told the council.
“The threat is not Venezuela. The threat is the US government,” he said.
- Turkish gendarmerie locates wreckage south of Kesikkavak village.
- Jet loses contact after emergency landing request near Ankara.
- Five people onboard including senior Libyan military officials.
Turkiye’s interior minister said on Tuesday that authorities had located the wreckage of a plane carrying Libya’s chief of staff, Mohammed Ali Ahmed Al-Haddad, after it went missing shortly after departing Ankara.
Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said on X that Turkish gendarmerie teams had located the wreckage of a business jet that departed Ankara’s Esenboga airport for Tripoli.
The aircraft was found around two kilometres south of Kesikkavak village in the Haymana district, about 74 kilometres (45 miles) from Ankara, he added.
The prime minister of Libya’s internationally recognised government said that the Libyan army’s chief of staff, Al-Haddad, died in a plane crash, adding that four others were on the jet as well.
“This followed a tragic and painful incident while they were returning from an official trip from the Turkish city of Ankara. This grave loss is a great loss for the nation, for the military institution, and for all the people,” Libyan Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dbeibah said in a statement.
He said the commander of Libya’s ground forces, the director of its military manufacturing authority, an adviser to the chief of staff, and a photographer from the chief of staff’s office were also on the aircraft.
Earlier, Yerlikaya said that radio contact was lost with a jet carrying Libya’s army chief of staff, Mohammed Ali Ahmed Al-Haddad, shortly after takeoff from the Turkiye capital.
Yerlikaya wrote on X that the jet had taken off at 1710 GMT and radio contact was lost at 1752 GMT.
He said the flight had made a request for an emergency landing while over the Haymana district of Ankara, but that no contact was established after.
Four others were on the jet, he added, while flight tracking data showed other flights being diverted away from Ankara’s Esenboga Airport.
Turkiye’s defence ministry had announced the Libyan chief of staff’s visit earlier, saying he had met with Turkiye Defence Minister Yasar Guler and Turkiye counterpart Selcuk Bayraktaroglu, along with other Turkiye military commanders.
Cristiano Ronaldo, football’s first billionaire, and his fiancée Georgina Rodriguez have reportedly purchased luxury villas in Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea project, according to British media.
According to the Daily Mail, the properties are located at Nujuma, a Ritz-Carlton Reserve developed by Red Sea Global, around 26 kilometres off Saudi Arabia’s mainland, and are accessible only by chartered boat or seaplane. Ronaldo and Rodriguez are among the first buyers of the ultra-luxury villas.
Each villa at the Ritz-Carlton Reserve Residences is priced from SAR15.5 million (approximately £3.1 million). The development features just 19 ultra-private residences, offering bespoke services amid pristine natural surroundings.
Speaking to Daily Mail, the Portuguese footballer said: “From the moment we first visited, Georgina and I felt a connection with the island and its natural beauty – it’s a place where we feel at peace.”
“Now we have a home here, we can enjoy quality time with family in complete privacy and serenity any time we like,” he added.
Earlier, a Bloomberg report revealed that Ronaldo earned over $550 million in salary between 2002 and 2023, in addition to a decade-long Nike endorsement deal worth nearly $18 million annually. His brand partnerships with Armani, Castrol, and other global companies have added more than $175 million to his fortune.
Ronaldo’s move to Saudi club Al-Nassr in 2023 made him the highest-paid footballer in history, with an annual salary of £177 million ($237.5 million), alongside bonuses and a reported 15% ownership stake in the club.
For comparison, Argentina and Inter Miami star Lionel Messi has earned more than $600 million in pre-tax salary during his career, according to financial estimates.
Ronaldo’s billionaire status places him among an elite group of athletes, including Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, LeBron James, Tiger Woods, and Roger Federer.
Despite his financial success, Ronaldo has indicated that he is not considering retirement anytime soon.
— With additional information from Reuters.
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