Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in multiple interviews that the armada of U.S. Navy ships that have been amassing off the coast of Venezuela since August will be used to impose the administration’s will on the country.
“What you're seeing right now is an oil quarantine that allows us to exert tremendous leverage over what happens next,” Rubio said on Face the Nation Sunday.
Roughly 15,000 to 20,000 troops have been amassed in the region since summer. The Norfolk-based USS Ford Carrier Strike Group has been out for six months and the three ships of the USS Iwo Jima Amphibious Ready Group have been in the region for five months. The Navy has tried to keep deployments close to seven months.
President Donald Trump said Saturday that the United States will “run” Venezuela after a sweeping early morning raid apprehended Venezuelan President Nicholas Maduro.
The operation had been in planning stages for months and involved the Army’s elite Delta Force. F/A 18s from the carrier were part of 150 aircraft from 20 locations that provided air cover for the mission. The helicopter carrying Maduro landed on the USS Iwo Jima, before he was taken to New York for trial. F-22 Raptors, based at Langley Air Force Base, were also involved in the strike.
Sen. Tim Kaine renewed his effort to force a vote on a war powers resolution this week. Kaine has not been able to get enough votes in the Republican-controlled Senate to bring the measure to the floor since the administration began targeting boats in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific.
“Members of the Senate and the public have definitely been lied to by the administration, but I'm not surprised at all, because it was plain to me when the administration took the first boat strike on Sept. 2 and then I reviewed the facts about the strikes in a classified setting,” Kaine said.
Operation Southern Spear has killed at least 105 people on small boats that the Trump administration has said were carrying drugs. In mid-December the operation shifted to military and Coast Guard law enforcement teams going after oil tankers, which had been under U.S. sanctions.
President Trump has not ruled out having U.S forces on the ground in Venezuela, but Rubio said there have been no American troops on the ground since the Saturday morning raid. The secretary of state did not commit to a timeframe for elections or about the process of transitioning to a new government.
