President Trump has ordered diplomatic outreach to Venezuela to cease, according to a report this week from the New York Times, potentially opening the door for military escalation. The U.S. mission was headed by special presidential envoy Richard Grenell and aimed to find a diplomatic agreement in the context of an increasingly tense situation between Venezuela and the U.S.
The newspaper claims that Trump became frustrated with talks due to President Nicolás Maduro’s refusal to step down voluntarily and Venezuelan officials’ denials of involvement in narcotrafficking.
The Trump administration alleges that Maduro and other high-ranking members of the Venezuelan regime lead the Cártel de los Soles (Cartel of the Suns) – drug trafficking cells within the South American country’s military. The Cartel of the Suns was designated as a terrorist organization earlier this year.
Whilst Grenell has argued for a peaceful agreement, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and his allies have been strongly pushing for regime change. In a notice sent to Congress last week, the Trump administration declared that the U.S. was in an “armed conflict” with “designated terrorist organizations.”
Over the past two months, the U.S. has deployed eight warships, a submarine, and ten thousand troops in the Caribbean, ostensibly as part of an anti-narcotics operation. The force has already conducted at least four lethal strikes on boats which the Trump administration claims to have been carrying drugs.
Experts and political opposition alike have raised concerns over the questionable legality of killing suspected drug traffickers without trial or evidence. An attempt by Senate Democrats to prevent further strikes under the War Powers Act was blocked by the Republican majority on Wednesday.
The U.S. military is also reportedly planning operations against narcotrafficking suspects within Venezuela, although the White House is yet to approve such actions.
CNN claims the Trump administration has prepared a classified legal opinion that “appears to justify an open-ended war against a secret list of groups, giving the president power to designate drug traffickers as enemy combatants and have them summarily killed.”
Sarah Harrison, senior analyst at Crisis Group, told the news outlet that “it would mean DOJ has interpreted the president to have such extraordinary powers that he alone can decide to prosecute a war far broader than what Congress authorized after the attacks on 9/11.”
With the Cartel of Suns being one of the “designated terrorist organizations” that the Trump administration claims to be in an “armed conflict” with, it could use this shaky legal opinion to justify an operation to remove Maduro from power.
Featured Image: Nicolás Maduro Moros, president of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela (photo credit: Sergei Bobylev/RIA Novosti)
