DORAL, Fla. — Tensions continue to rise between the United States and Venezuela as the Trump administration escalates its pressure campaign.
President Donald Trump said the U.S. took military action against a drug-carrying boat leaving Venezuela, echoing a campaign promise to fight back against cartels now designated as terrorist organizations.
“They included groups not just from Venezuela, but also from Mexico, from El Salvador and from Colombia,” Roxanna Vigil, an international affairs fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, said. “So I think some of the questions that are being raised is this use of force. Is it limited to the Tren de Aragua, or is it not?”
Vigil said that then “raises a whole other set of concerns and sort of different geopolitical dynamics” and the “question of U.S. interests in Venezuela.”
“The big question there is Chevron,” she said. “As I understand it, Chevron has restarted the shipment of Venezuelan oil to the United States. What does this escalation mean for that?”
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro reiterated rhetoric that foreign policy analysts say resonates with his base, framing the strike as an act of U.S. imperialist aggression.
Vigil said Venezuela’s neighbors will be watching the situation closely.
“I think there are going to be a lot of conversations taking place privately between diplomats,” Vigil said.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he is meeting the president of Ecuador Thursday to address illegal immigration and combat transnational crime and terrorism.
On Monday, he met with Mexico’s president, posting on X that talks ranged from dismantling cartels to resolving trade barriers. Analysts warn that targeting vessels in the Caribbean could create friction with trade policy.
“There’s going to need to be a lot of that diplomatic work that is done to allay the concerns of what this means, especially for key partners like Colombia, that relies on the U.S. market for the trade of goods, and is one of the few countries in the world that actually has a trade surplus with the United States,” Vigil said. “It’s a really key economic relationship. So there’s going to be a lot of concern and a lot of questions that the U.S. government is going to need to answer to partners like that.”
According to USAFacts, the U.S. has had a trade surplus with Colombia every year from 2013 through 2024. U.S. goods and services trade with Colombia totaled an estimated $53.3 billion in 2024, up 8.3% from the year before, the U.S. Trade Representative reports.
As for whether U.S. adversaries would intervene on Venezuela’s behalf, Vigil said that is unlikely.
“If you take Russia, they’re waging a war already, so it would be hard to see a situation in which they would see getting involved in escalation, like what’s happening in Venezuela, given that they’re already preoccupied at home,” she said. “And if you look at Iran, very hard to see them getting involved, they’re also very preoccupied at home. And we saw what happened in June. And China, really, really hard to see them getting involved.
“There is a lot happening in the trade world with China, and it just doesn’t seem like it would be a good fit.”
Both China and Russia, Vigil said, are major creditors of Venezuela and Venezuela has largely not paid the countries back.
“So it’s just really hard to see a country seeing getting involved in this escalation of Venezuela as a good investment,” she said.
That view was echoed by World Affairs Council of Miami President Aaron Rosen.
“Ultimately, this is very far away for the Russians and Chinese,” Rosen said. “It’s helpful for them to put out statements that also are critical of the United States. But this is not a super high-quality item for them.”
Copyright 2025 by WPLG Local10.com - All rights reserved.
