'Land is going to be next' - Trump's warning to Venezuela: Video
U.S. President Donald Trump has warned that Washington could expand its crackdown on alleged Venezuelan drug trafficking operations to land routes, as tensions between the two countries continue to rise.
Speaking at an event in Washington on Thursday, October 23, Trump said maritime drug smuggling had dropped sharply due to recent U.S. actions, prompting traffickers to shift their operations.
“The drugs coming in by sea are like 5% of what they were a year ago — less than 5 percent,” Trump said. “So now they’re coming in by land. And even the land is concerned, because I told them that’s going to be next.”
Trump suggested that he might seek congressional backing for further measures. “We may go to the Senate. We may go to Congress and tell them about it, but I can’t imagine they’d have any problem with it,” he added. “What are they going to do? Say, ‘We don’t want to stop drugs pouring in’? They’re killing 300,000 people a year. I think that’s the real number.”
The comments come amid heightened U.S.–Venezuela tensions following several U.S. strikes on what officials described as “narco-boats” linked to drug trafficking operations. Washington has accused President Nicolás Maduro’s government of facilitating narcotics smuggling, while Caracas has denounced the U.S. actions as “modern-day imperialism” and an attempt to seize Venezuela’s natural resources.
This story is written and edited by the Global South World team, you can contact us here.
