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President Donald Trump said he was doubling U.S. military resources in the region, including destroyers, surveillance planes and personnel, in an anti-drug crackdown to deal with what he called a "growing threat."
The beefed-up operation - quickly dismissed by the Maduro government - will also call for sending Navy ships closer to Venezuela, according to a U.S. official and two people familiar with the matter, who spoke on condition of anonymity. But it was unclear how close they would get to Venezuelan shores, the sources said.
Trump, joined by Defense Secretary Mark Esper and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mark Milley, made the announcement at the start of the White House's daily briefing on efforts to battle the spreading pandemic. It followed the indictment last week of Maduro and more than a dozen current and former officials on charges of narco-terrorism conspiracy, drug trafficking and corruption.
On Tuesday, the Trump administration offered, however, to begin lifting Venezuela sanctions if the opposition and members of Maduro's Socialist Party form an interim government without him, marking a shift in a U.S. policy.
Comment: The US has manufactured another excuse to justify its vendetta against Maduro. Never mind it was Guaido who was photographed in the company of Colombian drug-runners who helped him get back and forth across the border. See also: