Washington, 23 December (H.S.): US Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem declared on Monday that Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro must be gone from power, articulating one of the starkest public endorsements yet of leadership change in Caracas amid escalating American military and economic pressure.
This pronouncement, delivered during a Fox News interview, underscores Washington's multifaceted campaign to dismantle Maduro's regime, which the Trump administration has branded a hub of narco-terrorism and illicit oil trade.
Noem explicitly linked recent US naval interceptions of sanctioned Venezuelan oil tankers to a broader strategy of isolation, stating that operations extend beyond mere ship seizures to broadcasting a global message against Maduro's alleged criminal enterprises.
We're not just interdicting these ships, but we're also sending a message around the world that the illegal activity that Maduro's participating in cannot stand; he needs to be gone, she asserted on December 22.
The comments coincide with intensified US naval deployments in the Caribbean, including the world's largest aircraft carrier, patrolling along Venezuela's coast to enforce compliance.
President Donald Trump initiated a complete blockade of sanctioned oil vessels entering or exiting Venezuela earlier in December, directing forces to seize cargoes and retain both ships and crude as leverage.
US authorities have already captured two tankers and pursued a third off the Venezuelan shoreline, moves senior officials privately describe as calibrated to coerce Maduro's ouster rather than solely combat smuggling.
White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles reportedly confided to Vanity Fair that Trump intends to sustain such actions until Maduro cries uncle, framing them as regime-destabilizing tactics.
Complementing the blockade, the US military's Operation Southern Spear has conducted over 28 airstrikes since early September on suspected drug-trafficking vessels in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific, killing at least 104 individuals across 29 boats.
Targets include crafts purportedly linked to Venezuelan syndicates like the Cartel of the Suns—allegedly headed by Maduro himself—and Colombia's National Liberation Army, though Washington has released scant forensic proof tying wreckage to narcotics.
International legal scholars have condemned the strikes as probable violations of maritime law, while Maduro accuses the flotilla of plotting invasion and resource seizure.
Narco-Terror Label and BountyThe administration designated Venezuela's regime a foreign terrorist organization this fall, spotlighting the Cartel of the Suns as a narco-terrorist entity flooding the US with cocaine and fentanyl via alliances with groups like Mexico's Sinaloa Cartel and Tren de Aragua.
In August, Attorney General Pam Bondi doubled the bounty on Maduro to $50 million for tips aiding his arrest on narcotics charges, branding him among the world's premier traffickers and a national security menace.
These measures, Noem affirmed on Monday, signal unrelenting pursuit until Maduro relinquishes control.
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Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar
