Why are US warships going to Venezuela?
The Take
Al Jazeera
4.7 • 747 Ratings
🗓️ 28 August 2025
⏱️ 24 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Thousands of US troops are on warships heading to Venezuela’s coast. President Donald Trump says the move is part of his administration’s fight against drug cartels that the US has labelled terrorist organizations. In response, Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro has ordered troops to the border and called on citizens to mobilize to defend the country. Is Trump’s aggressive move about fighting drugs or a signal of broader US intervention?
In this episode:
Alessandro Rampietti (@rampietti), Al Jazeera Reporter
Episode credits:
This episode was produced by Tamara Khandaker, Noor Wazwaz, Kylene Kiang, Diana Ferrero and Tracie Hunte with Manny Panaretos, Melanie Marich, Farhan Rafid, and Kisaa Zehra, and our guest host, Kevin Hirten. It was edited by Amy Walters and Sarí el-Khalili.
Our sound designer is Alex Roldan. Our video editors are Hisham Abu Salah and Mohannad al-Melhem. Alexandra Locke is The Take’s executive producer. Ney Alvarez is Al Jazeera’s head of audio.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Al Jazeera Podcasts. |
| 0:07.0 | Today, why are American warships sailing towards Venezuela? |
| 0:15.0 | The U.S. is deploying destroyers and thousands of Marines towards Venezuela as President Trump looks to |
| 0:22.0 | crack down on cartels and the Maduro regime. |
| 0:25.9 | With Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro calling on citizens to mobilize to defend the country, |
| 0:31.9 | what's behind Trump's latest move? |
| 0:36.5 | I'm Kevin Horton, and this is the take. |
| 0:42.7 | My name is Alessandro Rampieti. I'm Algezeghira English correspondent in Colombia, |
| 0:51.2 | and I'm talking to you from the capital of Colombia, Bogota. |
| 0:55.6 | Well, let's start with what's happening right now. |
| 0:58.1 | Let's just jump right in. |
| 0:59.3 | As we speak, American warships and thousands of troops are sailing to the Southern Caribbean |
| 1:04.6 | outside of Venezuela. |
| 1:07.0 | Three U.S. destroyers carrying Marines are heading in the direction of Venezuela. |
| 1:13.1 | According to the White House, the mission is to target drug cartels that traffic narcotics to the United States. |
| 1:20.6 | What is the official line on this? What is Washington saying? |
| 1:25.6 | Well, Washington has said some things, but we don't know everything that's happening. |
| 1:30.5 | What's the goal, the real goal behind this huge deployment of ships to the Southern Caribbean? |
| 1:36.6 | We know that it all started with a still secretive directive on part of President Trump, essentially allowing the military and the Navy to start |
| 1:49.8 | operating against drug cartels in the Caribbean and against a number of criminal organizations |
| 1:58.3 | that the U.S. is now considering terrorist groups. |
| 2:02.5 | Among them, this alleged drug trafficking group called the Cartel de Los Soles or Cartel of |
... |
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