DORAL, Fla. — As U.S.-Venezuela tensions increased, Venezuelans visiting El Arepazo on Thursday in Doral said they had hope that President Donald Trump was going to bring down Nicolás Maduro soon.

The U.S. has acknowledged the reports of voter fraud and repression after Maduro declared election victories in 2018 and 2024. The State Department offered $50 million for information leading to his arrest.

Reinaldo José Pérez was among the El Arepazo patrons who have been keeping up with updates on Trump’s actions on immigration and military operations, and the impact that it could have on them, their families, and friends, both in South Florida and Venezuela.

“The Venezuelan people have too much stress, every day,” Pérez said.

Adm. Alvin Holsey, who stepped up as the leader of the U.S. Southern Command in Doral in November and has been involved in the military operations in the Caribbean, announced on Thursday that he will be retiring in December.

“Admiral Holsey has demonstrated unwavering commitment to mission, people, and nation,” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth wrote on X.

On Wednesday, at the White House, Trump said he had authorized the Central Intelligence Agency’s action in Venezuela because the Maduro regime had “emptied their prisons” into the U.S.

“We have a lot of drugs coming in from Venezuela, and a lot of the Venezuelan drugs come in through the sea,” Trump said at the Oval Office.

Trump confirmed The New York Times’s report that his administration had authorized “covert C.I.A. action” in Venezuelan territory.

“We are looking at land now, because we’ve got the sea very well under control,” Trump said.

On Tuesday, Trump and Hegseth shared videos on X to report that the U.S. military had executed another fatal strike involving a boat with drugs. The announcements about the strikes started on Sept. 2.

“They have faster boats. They are world-class speedboats, but they are not faster than missiles,” Trump said on Wednesday.

Trump designated transnational gangs and drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations in February.

Trump authorized CIA action in Venezuela

In a televised speech on Wednesday, Maduro criticized the U.S. for failed regime changes that have turned into “eternal wars” in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Libya.

“No to the coups carried out by the CIA,” Maduro said while referring to political violence in the 1970s and 80s in Argentina and Chile.

Maduro said Latin America “repudiates” CIA coups and added that he rejects “war in the Caribbean” and in South America and “yes to peace.”

Yván Gil, Venezuela’s foreign minister, released a statement on Telegram, accusing that an intervention would be “a very serious violation of international law and the United Nations’ Charter.”

Earlier this month, Jorge Rodríguez, the head of the National Assembly announced Maduro’s administration had warned the Trump administration about a “false-flag operation” at the U.S. Embassy in Caracas by “extrimists” who oppose Maduro.

Venezuelans in Doral hope Trump will bring down Maduro,

The U.S. has also sanctioned El Cártel de los Soles, which officials have described as a narcotrafficking organization that involves the Venezuelan military and that continues to support the Maduro regime.

“In the case of Maduro and his criminal narcoterrorism structure, it’s through drug trafficking, gold trafficking, arms trafficking, even human trafficking,“ María Corina Machado, the winner of the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize, told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour on Wednesday.

Venezuela's Machado, Gimenez applaud Trump's actions

Maduro said Machado, the persecuted leader of the opposition in Venezuela, was a “demonic witch.” She said Maduro isn’t the leader of a “conventional dictatorship,” but of a narcoterrorist structure.

“Venezuela right now is a safe haven for Hezbollah, Hamas, the drug cartels, Colombian guerrilla operate freely, and they are part of this liaison with the regime,” Machado told Amanpour.

Colombian President Gustavo Petro, an economist who was a member of a leftist guerrilla, lashed out over Trump’s military actions in the southern Caribbean and said the UN Security Council and the UN General Assembly needed to act on human rights violations.

“There is no war against smuggling,” Petro said in Spanish earlier this month. “It’s a war for oil and it must be stopped by the world.”

Colombia’s next presidential election is on May 31, 2026. Miguel Uribe Turbay, an opposition candidate, was fatally shot on Aug. 11 in Bogotá. In September, Petro said Trump was in search of a ”puppet president" and Colombians should not “kneel” to the U.S. and allow farmers who grow coca plants to get “beaten up.”

While some in Congress are concerned about the military action in the Caribbean, Rep. Carlos Gimenez applauded Trump’s efforts.

“I am pretty hawkish when it comes to Venezuela ... Maduro is the head of the Cartel De Los Soles,” Giemenez said. “The Cartel De Los Soles is responsible for the deaths of hundreds and tens of thousands of Americans.”

Maduro asked Rodriguez and his sister, Vice President Delcy Rodriguez, to present proposals in April and September for him to step down and allow retired Gen. Miguel Rodriguez Torres to transition in, but the Trump administration declined, The Miami Herald reported.

Maduro’s loyalists arrested Rodriguez Torres, the former head of the Venezuelan government’s intelligence, who was loyal to the late Hugo Chávez. Maduro’s prosecutors accused him of instigating a rebellion, and corrections released him five years later in 2023.

“I am leaving my land with much pain because I love this land where I was born and for which I have fought all my life, but I will surely return,” Rodriguez Torres said in Spanish, according to a video that La Patilla, an independent Venezuelan news site, shared on YouTube.

Rodriguez Torres, who found refuge in Spain, is among the estimated 7.9 million Venezuelans who have migrated since 2014. Maduro, who succeeded Chavez with the support of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela, first assumed office on April 19, 2013.

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APTOPIX Venezuela Maduro Armed demonstrators march in support of President Nicolas Maduro in Caracas, Venezuela, Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos) (Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved) (Ariana Cubillos/AP)

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De La Rosa reported from Doral. Ketschke reported from Washington, D.C. Weddle reported from Bogotá, Colombia. Yeschivi reported from Pembroke Park. Torres reported from Miami.