Days ahead of terrorism designation for Maduro, US military performs large ‘attack demo’ near Venezuela

By Natasha Bertrand, Avery Schmitz, Kylie Atwood, CNN

(CNN) — The US military conducted its largest show of force to date near Venezuela on Thursday, ahead of a key Monday deadline that will see the US designate Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his government allies as members of a foreign terrorist organization.

The designation of “Cartel de los Soles,” a phrase that experts say is more a description of allegedly corrupt government officials than an organized crime group, as a foreign terrorist organization will authorize President Donald Trump to impose fresh sanctions. It doesn’t, however, explicitly authorize the use of lethal force, according to legal experts.

Still, administration officials have been making the case that the terrorist designation will give the US expanded military options for striking inside Venezuela.

“It gives more tools to our department to give options to the President,” Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said on Thursday.

While the US has been accumulating military assets in the region, Trump has suggested he may still be open to a diplomatic solution, though to date there have been no public indications of progress toward deescalation.

In the largest military display near Venezuela since the US began threatening military action, at least six US aircraft appeared off the coast of Venezuela on Thursday over the course of several hours, including a supersonic F/A-18E fighter jet, a B-52 strategic bomber and reconnaissance aircraft, according to a CNN review of open-source flight data.

A statement posted by the United States Air Forces Southern Command on Friday characterized the drill as a “bomber attack demo” to deter illicit trafficking.

The F/A-18E flew from the USS Gerald Ford, which arrived in the Caribbean earlier this week. An RC-135 Rivet Joint reconnaissance plane, equipped with signals intelligence capabilities, also appeared circling in “racetrack” loops near Venezuela’s eastern border.

That show of force happened hours before Trump told Fox News on Friday that he would be speaking to Maduro “in the not-too-distant future.”

“I can’t tell you what I’m going to tell him, but I have something very specific to say,” he said. Earlier in the week Trump had publicly suggested that he was open to talks, though it’s unclear when the two leaders may connect.

Ric Grenell, a Trump special envoy, had been leading dialogue with the Maduro regime earlier this year. But the White House called off those discussions last month as the US military continued to amass a large footprint in the region, according to a source.

During the Biden administration, the Qataris had passed messages and facilitated discussions between the US and the Maduro regime, but they have not been asked to serve in that role in recent months, sources said.

The Trump administration could turn to other countries that have contact with the Maduro regime, but so far it appears that they have not asked another country to send messages to the regime on their behalf, based on discussions with diplomats in countries that currently maintain dialogue with the regime.

The designation of “Cartel de los Soles” only furthers the pressure on Maduro, who the Trump administration has named as the leader of that group. The label is one of the State Department’s most serious counterterrorism tools.

It is illegal for US persons to knowingly provide “material support or resources” to a designated foreign terrorist organization, and representatives and members of one are blocked from entering the US. The Trump administration notified Congress on November 16 that it would apply the designation to “Cartel de los Soles” starting a countdown to Monday for lawmakers to object, though Congress has not taken action to block the move.

The US military has been conducting training missions near Venezuela in the air and at sea for several weeks adding pressure to Maduro.

The missions, which began in mid-October, have been carried out by both B-52s and supersonic B-1 heavy bombers, inching closer to the Venezuelan coastline each time. The flights have been concentrated north of Caracas and Isla Margarita, an island retreat where Venezuelan military forces trained for amphibious operations last month.

Trump was also briefed repeatedly earlier this month on options for attacking Venezuelan military and government facilities directly, CNN has reported.

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