Trump floats possibility of strikes on Venezuela: ‘We’ll see’

(NewsNation) — President Donald Trump issued an ominous warning Monday to Venezuela amid rising tensions stoked by recent U.S. military strikes and raids.

“We’ll see what happens,” Trump said Sunday in response to a question about the possibility of U.S. strikes on the Latin American nation. “Look, Venezuela is sending us their gang members, their drug dealers and drugs. It’s not acceptable.”

Personnel from a U.S. warship boarded a Venezuelan tuna boat with nine fishermen over the weekend as it was sailing in Venezuelan waters, the country’s foreign minister said Saturday.

Tensions between the two nations escalated after Trump in August ordered the deployment of warships in the Caribbean, citing the fight against Latin American drug cartels.

While reading a statement Saturday, Foreign Minister Yván Gil told journalists the Venezuelan tuna boat was “illegally and hostilely boarded by a U.S. Navy destroyer” and 18 armed personnel who remained on the vessel for eight hours, preventing communication and the fishermen’s normal activities. They were then released under escort by the Venezuelan Navy.

The fishing boat had authorization from the Ministry of Fisheries to carry out its work, Gil said at a news conference, during which he presented photos of the incident.

The Trump administration has accused Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro of helping to flood the U.S. with drugs, and doubled a reward from $25 million to $50 million for information leading to his arrest.

The U.S. government has given no indication it plans to carry out a ground incursion with the more than 4,000 troops deployed in the area.

But the Venezuelan government has nonetheless called on its citizens to enlist in the militias — armed volunteers — in support of its security forces in the event of a potential incursion. On Saturday, it urged them to go to military barracks for training sessions.

Trump’s “we’ll see” comment came just days after the president pushed back on Maduro’s claim that the U.S. was “seeking a regime change through military threat.”

“We’re not talking about (regime change), but we are talking about the fact that you had an election which was a very strange election, to put it mildly,” Trump said when asked about Maduro’s comment.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.