The sudden deployment of a US naval attack group toward the coast of Venezuela is raising fears of an expensive new military conflict in Latin America. The legal cover for the tasking of the seven warships, surveillance aircraft, 2200 Marines and a nuclear attack submarine is an executive order in January 2025 and subsequent reclassification of eight organised crime syndicates as foreign terrorist organisations for the first time. In May 2025 Secretary of State Marco Rubio was concurrently appointed National Security Advisor—the first time since Henry Kissinger that someone has held both roles. The decision in early August 2025 to deploy the US military against “narco-terrorists” potentially leaves strikes by these forces outside Congressional authority. The US expedition has galvanised opposition around the region, with the Latin American and Caribbean trading bloc ALBA-TCP issuing a communique describing the military escalation as “a direct attack on Venezuela's independence, but also a threat to the stability and self-determination of all the peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean.” Samuel Moncada, Venezuela's ambassador to the U.N described the deployment as “a massive propaganda operation to justify what the experts call kinetic action—meaning military intervention in a country which is a sovereign and independent country....it's ridiculous to think that they're fighting drug trafficking with nuclear submarines.” Sources: ALBA-TCP condemns US Military buildup near Venezuela: China and regional allies back Maduro https://caribbeannewsglobal.com/alba-tcp-condemns-us-military-buildup-near-venezuela-china-and-regional-allies-back-maduro/ Declaration 13th Extraordinary Summit of the Heads of State And Government of ALBA-TCP https://x.com/ALBATCP/status/1958353464662331844/photo/1 State Dept. Draws Up List of Cartels to Be Labeled Terrorist Groups https://web.archive.org/web/20250808180031/https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/12/us/politics/state-dept-terrorist-designation.html Trump Directs Military to Target Foreign Drug Cartels https://web.archive.org/web/20250808161019/https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/08/us/trump-military-drug-cartels.html US warships head to Venezuela: Fight against cartels or imperial ambition? https://aljazeera.com/news/2025/8/26/us-warships-head-to-venezuela-fight-against-cartels-or-imperial-ambition. Wikileaks