Hegseth's Announcement Of Operation 'Southern Spear' Sparks Speculation About Further Escalation Against Venezuela

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced on Thursday Operation Southern Spear, which is aimed at targeting "narco-terrorists" and defend "our homeland from the drugs that are killing our people."

"The Western Hemisphere is America's neighborhood - and we will protect it," Hegseth added.

The publication has led to speculation about whether the administration will further escalate its actions in the region or is just putting a name to the operation, which has carried out at least 20 strikes against alleged drug vessels, killing at least 80 people.

Moreover, President Donald Trump was presented with an updated list of targets to strike Venezuela if he were to give the order, according to a new report.

CBS News detailed that senior military officials, including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Dan Caine, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, presented Trump with the options, which include strikes on land. No final decision has been made, the outlet noted.

Earlier this week the Washington Post reported that there are four broad target categories that U.S. planners might prioritize should Trump decide to strike. The first are drug production and transit nodes, including clandestine cocaine labs and large storage sites in states such as Sucre and border zones where drugs are consolidated for shipment. Hitting those nodes could be intended to degrade the financial base of corrupt officials and traffickers.

A second category is small, often improvised airstrips and "parking lots" where light aircraft land to pick up shipments. Apure and the Catatumbo region were singled out as areas where traffickers use makeshift runways and where operations have increased amid recent crackdowns on maritime smuggling. Strikes on those strips would be tactically attractive because they are discrete and directly linked to trafficking networks.

Third are ports and airports that could serve as hubs for cocaine shipments. Defense analysts named commercial seaports and major airports as potential targets if planners decide to disrupt larger-scale shipping and logistics. Any plan to strike such facilities would likely include parallel efforts to neutralize or degrade Venezuelan air defenses first, since even partially operational systems represent a threat to U.S. aircraft.

Fourth are political and security apparatus nodes, including units of the Venezuelan security services. U.S. officials have discussed the possibility of targeting the General Directorate of Military Counterintelligence, known as DGCIM, or other elite security formations if the administration concluded that pressure on the Maduro leadership was the primary goal. That step would carry greater political risk and the possibility of broader confrontation.