During the administration of United States President Donald Trump, the possibility of a United States-led invasion of Venezuela was discussed.[1]
Within the framework of the crisis in Venezuela, an intervention was raised in 2017 to Donald Trump's advisors, including US Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson and the national security advisor, H. R. McMaster (who left the Trump administration from that moment on) and later to several presidents of Latin American countries, among those, Juan Manuel Santos. On both occasions, everyone present asked president Trump not to proceed with said plan. During the Venezuelan presidential crisis the possibility of intervene in Venezuela, Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs, Kimberly Breier declared that:
Although our policy is based on a peaceful transition, we have made it very clear that all options are on the table.[2]
In May 2020, Trump said in a conversation with the television network Fox News that "if we ever did something with Venezuela", in that case "it would be called invasion", explaining: "if I wanted to enter Venezuela I wouldn't I would keep it a secret, and I would not send a small group, we would talk about an Army.[3] In June 2020 John Bolton, national security advisor at the time, published in a book that Donald Trump said that invading Venezuela would be "great" because "actually It is part of the United States».[4]
In May 2023 Gustavo Petro, president of Colombia, declared that Donald Trump had made a proposal to then-president Iván Duque to invade Venezuela through Colombia, but that his advisors had stopped him.[5]
In June 2023, Trump declared at a press conference in North Carolina:[6]