US Could Fire Tomahawks Into Venezuela: Former Ambassador
Interviews with:
Rear Adm. Joe Sestak, USN (Ret.)
Robert Kelly
Rear Adm. William Baumgartner, USCG (Ret.)
Amb. John Feeley
Newsweek
Oct. 30, 2025
The United States could fire long-range cruise missiles into Venezuela to ratchet up the pressure on President Nicolás Maduro, a former U.S. diplomat has warned, as doubts reign over just how far the White House will go amid a military build-up in the southern Caribbean.
U.S. forces close to Venezuela may launch a series of Tomahawk cruise missiles at targeted sites in the South American country from outside of Caracas' territorial waters, John Feeley, former U.S. ambassador to Panama who also served as the principal deputy assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere Affairs, told Newsweek.
President Donald Trump's administration is almost two months into what it has characterized as an uncompromising crackdown on drug smuggling to the U.S., a strike campaign widely decried by Democrats and some Republicans, as well as United Nations experts and former officials as illegal under international law.
The Trump administration insists the attacks are legal.
Washington has publicly acknowledged strikes on at least 14 vessels in both the southern Caribbean and Pacific since early September. A total of 61 people have been killed, according to the administration.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on Tuesday that U.S. forces had carried out three strikes on four vessels in the Eastern Pacific the previous day, killing 14 people. One person survived, Hegseth said. An Ecuadorian national and a Colombian citizen were returned to their home countries after a U.S. strike on an alleged drug "submarine" earlier this month. Hegseth said another strike in the Pacific on Wednesday had killed four "narco-terrorists."
The U.S. has dramatically increased its military presence in the southern Caribbean by deploying troops, aircraft, surface vessels and a nuclear-powered fast-attack submarine to the region. The USS Gerald Ford, the Navy's newest and largest aircraft carrier, is en route to the southern Caribbean with all the aircraft and warships that accompany it. U.S. bombers have repeatedly flown close to Venezuela's coastline in recent weeks.
