Venezuela
2019
2019-01-24 Maduro cut diplomatic ties with the U.S.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-46982692
2025 August
2025-01-20 Pages 179 and 181 of the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 calls to take action against Venezuela.
https://static.heritage.org/project2025/2025_MandateForLeadership_FULL.pdf
2025-08-28 During a press conference Karoline Leavitt said the Caribbean nations welcomed U.S. troop advancement.
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1499211274580946
2025-08-30 The U.S. Navy deployed warships into international waters and shot down a boat from Venezuela. News outlets reported Venezuela took this as an invasion, and many speculated this was a war crime.
2025 September
2025-09-04 (context) News outlets report that Venezuela has the world’s largest oil reserve.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_reserves_in_Venezuela
https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/venezuela-crisis
2025-09-04 Venezuelan F-16 fighter jets flew close to USS Jason Dunham.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/venezuela-fighter-jets-navy-ship-trump-maduro/
2025-09-06 The U.S. deployed F-35 fighter jets to Puerto Rico.
https://www.twz.com/air/f-35s-deployed-to-puerto-rico-showcased-in-first-official-images
2025-09-06 JD Vance posted on social media, “killing cartel members who poison our fellow citizens is the highest and best use of our military”. Brian Krassenstein replied, “killing the citizens of another nation who are civilians without any due process is called a war crime”. JD Vance responded, “I don’t give a shit what you call it”. Vance also wrote “Democrats:let’s send your kids to die in Russia…Republicans:actually let’s protect our people from the scum of the earth”.
https://x.com/JDVance/status/1964341094226743787
2025-09-10 A news outlet reported initial survivors to the boat strike, and that the U.S. turned back to finish the job. According to news outlets, if this was true it would be considered a breach of Rules of Engagement and an act of murder.
2025-09-16 The U.S. launched a second strike on a Venezuelan boat occupied by three people. When asked what proof the administration had for striking the boat, Trump told reporters to look at the cargo spattering all over the ocean.
2025-09-19 The U.S. launched a third drone strike on a Venezuelan boat.
https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/115233555445134712
2025-09-20 Trump posted, “We want Venezuela to immediately accept all of the prisoners, and people from mental institutions, which includes the Worst in the World Insane Asylums, that Venezuelan “Leadership” has forced into the United States of America. Thousands of people have been badly hurt, and even killed, by these “Monsters.” GET THEM THE HELL OUT OF OUR COUNTRY, RIGHT NOW, OR THE PRICE YOU PAY WILL BE INCALCULABLE!”
https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/115237675581682288
2025 October
2025-10-03 Pete Hegseth reported another lethal strike on a Venezuelan boat, killing 4 people.
2025-10-13 News outlets reported that some Venezuelan leaders joined US leaders to discuss investment opportunities at the IMF World Bank meeting.
2025-10-14 The U.S. launched another airstrike on a Venezuelan boat, this time killing 6. By this date there had been approximately 19 strikes so far, so I will not be tallying up the strikes as they had become too excessive and frequent to track.
2025-10-20 News outlets reported that the Trump administration wants to expand its military to Venezuelan soil; other news outlets reported differently, that Trump stated he doubts the US will go to war with Venezuela.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/oct/23/trump-venezuela-land-strikes
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c709rwxzx9yo
2025-10-30 News outlets reported that Democrats were left out of U.S. military boat strike briefings.
2025 November
2025-11-11 The UK suspended some intel sharing with the US because they also felt strikes in Venezuela were illegal.
https://edition.cnn.com/2025/11/11/politics/uk-suspends-caribbean-intelligence-sharing-us
2025-11-13 Military members begin to seek legal counsel because some are concerned they are not shielded from prosecution over Trump’s boat strikes.
https://thehill.com/homenews/5603976-doj-opinion-caribbean-strikes/
2025-11-14 Pete Hegseth announced the military will be calling Venezuelan boat strikes “Operation Southern Spear”. By this date the death toll was up to 79. Two days later news outlets reported the USS Gerald Ford entered the Caribbean Sea.
https://www.npr.org/2025/11/15/nx-s1-5609888/aircraft-carrier-caribbean-venezuela-military-action
2025-11-29 Trump declared the Venezuelan airspace should be closed via Truth Social, even though he does not have the authority to close another country’s airspace.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c741mpdyw9no
https://www.cnn.com/2025/11/29/world/video/stavridis-venezuela-airspace-digvid
https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/115633041089714842
2025-11-30 Pete Hegseth posted a meme on social media depicting a children’s cartoon character Franklin the Turtle firing missiles at boats and wrote above the caption “For your Christmas wish list…”
https://www.tmz.com/2025/12/01/pete-hegseth-parodies-franklin-the-turtle/
https://www.foxnews.com/category/person/pete-hegseth
https://x.com/PeteHegseth/status/1995291042346852861
2025-11-30 Elsie Rodriguez addressed other states in OPEC to denounce lethal US strikes and suggested those strikes are an attempt to take over Venezuela’s vast oil reserves.
https://tass.com/economy/2051289
2025 December
2025-12-01 Multiple news outlets reported that Pete Hegseth may be under investigation for war crimes concerning Venezuelan boat strikes, citing the September 2nd boat strike when two survivors of the initial strike clung for their lives amidst burning wreckage and Pete Hegseth gave a verbal order to kill everybody. For context, according to international law it is illegal to murder people who are attempting to surrender or are unable to fight.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cp8zyp988zvo
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/30/us/politics/trump-boat-strikes-war-crime.html
https://www.cnn.com/2025/11/30/politics/video/trump-hegseth-af1-comments-digvid
https://www.commondreams.org/news/pete-hegseth-boat
2025-12-02 Pete Hegseth and the Trump administration distanced themselves from war-crime allegations for the September boat strike by scapegoating Admiral Bradley. Several news outlets, Democrats and Republicans noted how the administration first claimed they knew nothing about the second strike, but contradicted themselves by stating they knew of it, but it was Admiral Bradley who made the call.
https://www.cnn.com/2025/12/02/politics/rand-paul-hegseth-boat-strike
https://www.cnn.com/2025/11/28/politics/us-military-second-strike-caribbean
2025-12-10 The U.S. seized a Venezuelan oil tanker amidst allegations of piracy. DHS posted a content video of the seizure to the tune of “Momma Said Knock You Out”.
https://time.com/7340189/venezuela-trump-administration-maduro-oil-tanker-seized-piracy/
https://x.com/DHSgov/status/1998909254854746523?s=20
2026 January
2026-01-12 Trump shared a post from Wikipedia where he declared himself president of Venezuela.
2026-01-14 Trump praised interim president and Maduro loyalist Delsy Rodriguez, noting he had leverage with the current regime in charge in Venezuela.
https://www.politico.com/news/2026/01/14/trump-delcy-rodriguez-venezuela-00730397
2026-01-15 The Senate and Vance blocked a war powers resolution intended to reign in Trump and stop hostilities in Venezuela.
2026-01-15 The US officially started selling Venezuelan oil with the first sale amounting to $500M. The funds were then sent to banks controlled by the US government, including some based in Saudi Arabia.
https://www.cnn.com/2026/01/14/business/venezuelan-oil-us-sell-trump
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5689426-venezuela-oil-sale-trump/
2026-01-15 In an effort to quiet Trump’s ongoing whining about not receiving the Nobel Peace Prize, Machado gave her Nobel prize to Trump.
https://www.cnn.com/2026/01/15/americas/venezuela-machado-trump-meeting-nobel-intl-hnk
2026-01-16 Machado held a press conference in Washington DC at the Heritage Foundation to discuss her resolution to support the US takeover of Venezuela.
2026 February
2026-02-24 During the State of the Union, Trump quipped about killing Venezuelans in boat strikes, “We very seriously damaged their fishing industry, also. Also, nobody wants – nobody wants to go fishing anymore”.
https://stluciatimes.com/178617/2026/02/trump-acknowledges-us-campaign-has-damaged-fishing-industry/
2026 March
2026-03-26 The US Treasury blocked funds for captured Maduro and his wife to pay their legal fees. Judge Alvin Hellerstein asked, “What’s the interest of the government now in blocking those funds? We are doing business in Venezuela. The defendant is here; Flores is here. They present no further national security threat”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGFkuH7GRX8&list=WL&index=1&t=388s
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/26/nyregion/maduro-venezuela-court-manhattan.html