Military operation against Latin American drug cartels and the Maduro regime as the optimal way to prepare U.S. forces for a global conflict

On September 08, 2025, US Secretary of War Hegseth and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Dan Caine arrived in Puerto Rico. The event coincided with reports of preparations for targeted strikes on the infrastructure of Venezuelan cartels.

In fact, the actions of US officials over the past weeks indicate the deployment of a command-staff element and means of influence on an operationally convenient bridgehead in the Caribbean basin.

The US is preparing a controlled military operation against Venezuela with the aim of dismantling the Maduro regime. The operation will have a "counter-cartel" legal framework, but the strategic goal is to neutralize nodes of Chinese influence in the Western Hemisphere.

The Beijing parade on September 3 and the SCO summit showed that the escalatory trajectory of the autocratic axis continues without changing the PRC's strategic intentions.