B-52s fly off coast of Venezuela in show of force by Trump
The White House defends military operations as stemming the tide of drugs.
October 16, 2025, 5:12 PM
In less than a week, President Donald Trump has threatened to attack inside Venezuela, confirmed ongoing covert operations inside the country, and ordered bombers capable of dropping nuclear weapons to fly in circles off its coast in what appears to be an unprecedented show of force intended to pressure the Venezuelan president to step down.
On Thursday, the U.S. launched what appears to be the sixth lethal boat strike against an alleged drug boat in the Caribbean Sea this year. A U.S. official, who confirmed the account first reported by Reuters, said there were survivors among the crew.
The White House has defended the extraordinary military operations as necessary to stem the tide of illicit drugs coming to the U.S.
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"President Trump believes that Nicholas Maduro is an illegitimate president, leading an illegitimate regime that has been trapped in drugs," White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Thursday.
Experts, though, say that while Maduro is complicit in the drug trade, many of the drugs coming into the U.S. come via Mexico and sea routes in the Pacific, not the Caribbean Sea, which is known more for shipping drugs to Europe.
When asked Wednesday whether the CIA was given the authority to "take out" Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, Trump told reporters that was a "ridiculous" question.
"But I think Venezuela is feeling heat," he said. "But I think a lot of other countries are feeling heat too."
"We're not going to let this country, our country, be ruined because other people want to drop, as you say, their worst," Trump told a reporter.
The Venezuelan Foreign Ministry has denounced Trump's statements and the military buildup in the region, saying the lethal strikes on boats in the Caribbean Sea constitute a policy of aggression, threats and harassment against Venezuela.
Asked what's next for his administration's "war" on drug cartels and whether they were considering strikes on land, Trump said it was looking into it.
"Well, I don't want to tell you exactly, but we are certainly looking at land now because we've got the sea very well under control," the president said.
Some 10,000 U.S. troops have been deployed to Latin America this year under Trump as part of a massive buildup of military assets in the region, including eight Navy ships, F-35 fighter jets and MQ-9 Reaper drones. Military operations in the region are being led by Adm. Alvin Holsey as commander of U.S. Southern Command, who announced unexpectedly on Thursday that he planned to retire after being in the job less than a year.
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On Wednesday three B-52 bombers took off from Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana and flew for hours near the coast of Venezuela, according to flight tracking data, in what appears to be a major show of force by Trump.
The B-52 is a long-range, heavy bomber that has been used in conventional warfare in such places as Iraq and Syria and is capable of carrying nuclear weapons. The deployment of the B-52s was first reported by The War Zone.
On Thursday, a U.S. official confirmed that a special operations aviation unit had conducted training exercises in international waters near Venezuela earlier this month.
The training mission was first reported by The Washington Post, which cited its own analysis of imagery posted online that showed MH-6 Little Bird attack helicopters and MH-60 Black Hawks flying about 90 miles from Venezuela's coastline near oil and gas platforms.
The types of aircraft used in the training exercise are the kind that could be used for a potential ground mission. However, a U.S. official told ABC News that the unit was conducting training flights to stay proficient and not rehearsing for a specific mission.
Since Sept. 2, Trump has ordered military strikes on at least six boats in the Caribbean Sea that the administration insists, without providing evidence, were carrying drugs to the U.S. The use of lethal of military force against drug boats is unprecedented and raises legal questions. Past administrations have relied on law enforcement to interdict drug shipments.
ABC News' Luis Martinez contributed to this report.
