President Donald Trump announced on September 15th, 2025, at approximately 8:17 PM UTC that the United States conducted a second kinetic strike against "positively identified" drug trafficking cartels in international waters, described as "confirmed narcoterrorists from Venezuela." The announcement was made via a post on X, formerly Twitter. This development follows Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro's repeated declarations throughout the day, including a statement around 7:48 PM UTC, that all communications and interlocutions with the United States have been "completely finished" and "discarded." Maduro had also escalated his rhetoric, referring to Secretary Marco Rubio as "the Lord of Death and War" and Undersecretary Christopher Landau as "Piche y Bandido." Senator Mark Warner stated last week that he had received a staff-level briefing on the first strike, but "raised more questions than answered questions." Warner indicated a need for "better clarity on the legal justification" and "more answers than we've got so far." Maduro's government has maintained a conviction that a US military offensive is imminent, dismissing current events as negotiation tactics. This belief has been developing throughout the day and was reportedly linked to claims of naval deployments, though a video circulated earlier on September 15th, reportedly AI-generated, was used to depict the "Navy Bolivarina" for morale purposes, with questions raised about the authenticity of original naval imagery.
