The United States has dispatched its largest naval contingent to Latin America in a quarter-century, moving at least seven warships, surveillance aircraft and roughly 4,000 Marines and sailors into international waters south of the Caribbean. The White House says the task force is part of a regional counter-narcotics operation aimed at dismantling the so-called Cartel de los Soles, which Washington alleges is led by Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said many Caribbean and Latin American governments back the deployment and reiterated that the Maduro administration “is not the legitimate government of Venezuela but a narco-terror cartel.” Washington has doubled to US$50 million the reward for information leading to Maduro’s arrest and has seized about US$700 million in assets linked to his circle. Colombia sought to calm regional nerves, saying it received assurances from U.S. chargé d’affaires Francisco McNamara that an invasion of Venezuela is not under consideration. Bogotá described the movement of interdiction vessels in international waters as long-standing cooperative activity but acknowledged heightened sensitivity after images of U.S. destroyers circulated this week. Caracas rejects the allegations and the show of force. UN envoy Samuel Moncada told the Security Council that Venezuela poses no threat and denounced the presence of a U.S. nuclear submarine as a breach of the 1967 Tlatelolco Treaty. Speaking to troops, Maduro said “there is no way” foreign forces will enter Venezuela and ordered further militia enlistment drills, while Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino López dismissed the narco-state narrative as a U.S. fabrication. The opposition is divided. Former lawmaker María Corina Machado welcomed the U.S. operation as pressure on a “criminal structure,” whereas ex-presidential candidate Henrique Capriles warned that any armed intervention would hinder prospects for a negotiated democratic transition. Analysts note that the scale of the U.S. flotilla—three Arleigh Burke-class destroyers alone—far exceeds the naval power of any single Latin American country, underscoring the potential for rapid escalation even as Washington insists no attack orders have been issued.