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WASHINGTON — US Southern Command showed off the efforts of roughly 2,200 Marines training in the Caribbean in a series of eye-popping photos on Monday as the Trump administration ramps up pressure on Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro.
Part of the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Force, the troops were pictured firing mortar systems in live-fire drills during “reconnaissance, selection and occupation of position” maneuvers recently and training on first-person view attack drones in Puerto Rico, as well as conducting flight operations aboard the amphibious assault ship USS Iwo Jima in the Caribbean Sea.
The photos — taken between Nov. 20 and Dec. 16 — tell a story of a combat-ready force as the US builds pressure on Maduro’s authoritarian, narcoterrorist regime, the Atlantic Council’s Alex Plitsas told The Post on Monday.
“It’s meant to demonstrate capability and capacity, and in some cases, it can also be signaling to adversaries,” he said.
Still, the former senior US intelligence officer and Iraq war veteran said the 2,200-strong force is not nearly large enough to conduct a ground invasion into Venezuela to overthrow Maduro by force and keep the country stable in its aftermath.
“It’s more pressure to try to get him to step down … but it appears that the administration is still trying to [get Maduro to] step down voluntarily without having to take military action,” Plitsas said, noting that it would take an estimated 100,000 troops to invade Venezuela.
Still, that doesn’t rule out the possibility of airstrikes on land targets, which has President Trump has floated multiple times as a possibility, he added.
The posts come days after Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Friday told reporters that Maduro’s regime — which not only directs narcoterrorism, but also hosts Hezbollah terrorists on Venezuelan soil — represents the No. 1 threat to American security in the Western hemisphere.
“The status quo with the Venezuelan regime is intolerable for the United States,” Rubio said at a year-end press conference, making clear the US is seeking Maduro’s ouster in Caracas.
“The illegitimate regime in Venezuela … invite[s] Hezbollah and Iran to operate from their territory [and] also allows [Columbian terror groups] ELN and the FARC dissidents not just to operate from inside of Venezuelan territory, but to control Venezuelan territory unencumbered, unimpeded,” he added.
They also come as the US Coast Guard is pursuing an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela accused of participating in what Washington calls illicit “black-market” oil shipments tied to the Maduro regime.
The vessel is believed to be sailing under a false flag and subject to a US judicial seizure order, and was spotted in international waters in the Caribbean Sea. The military has been tracking it since at least Sunday.
If seized, it would mark the third tanker taken over by American military assets in less than two weeks.
The White House has defended the aggressive posture as part of a broader effort to choke off revenue sources for Maduro, who the Trump administration believes uses oil sales to fund drug traffickers and other criminal networks.
Officials characterize the tankers as part of a “shadow fleet” undermining sanctions and global energy rules.
English (US)