U.S. President Trump stated on the 31st that he has not yet decided whether to launch strikes against ground targets within Venezuela.
Earlier that day, the U.S. "Miami Herald" reported that the Trump administration had decided to strike Venezuelan military facilities, possibly launching airstrikes "within days or even hours." While traveling to Florida for the weekend on Air Force One, Trump was asked by reporters whether he had made such a decision. He replied, "No, that‘s not true."
Recently, Trump has repeatedly threatened to launch ground strikes against Venezuela, and the Pentagon's military deployment in the Caribbean has reached its largest scale in more than 30 years.
Since September, the U.S. government has claimed that the U.S. military has sunk 15 "drug trafficking vessels" in international waters in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific, resulting in at least 61 deaths. The U.S. House of Representatives held a classified briefing on this on October 30.
Recent reports from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration indicate that Venezuela is not the main source of drugs flowing into the United States. The Venezuelan government has repeatedly accused the United States of attempting to instigate regime change through military threats and to expand its military presence in Latin America.