The U.S. – Venezuela confrontation has erupted to new heights. And now, Russia has entered the fight.
Recently, a Russian military transport plane landed in Caracas, signalling Moscow’s direct involvement in the crisis. For Washington, D.C., it’s a clear challenge in its own backyard. The U.S. has already committed 10,000 troops, warships, F-35 jets and special forces to the Caribbean.
The U.S. says that the buildup is to combat drug-traffickers but critics warn that it looks more like a regime-change operation in Venezuela. U.S. President Donald Trump, who once boasted of being the only modern U.S. leader not to start a new war and pushed for historic peace deals in various parts of the world, now finds himself on the brink of another conflict, this time in Latin America.
Russia’s President Vladimir Putin is still fighting a GRINDING war in Ukraine but his ambitions are taking flight far beyond Europe. The Russian military transport aircraft – the same type once linked to Moscow’s forces and the shadowy Wagner mercenary group – touched down in Caracas, the capital of Venezuela. It sent shockwaves through the U.S. It signalled that Russia’s focus is shifting and that a new front in global power rivalry may be opening in America’s own backyard.
According to flight-tracking data, a transport plane operated by Aviacon Zitotrans, left Russia on 22nd October. Aviacon Zitotrans is a Russian cargo airline specialising in heavy-lift cargo using a fleet of Ilyushin Il-76 aircraft. The aircraft made multiple stopovers – in Armenia, Algeria, Morocco, Senegal and Mauritania – before finally touching down in Caracas. This route containing multiple stops indicates a strategic approach to avoid Western airspace and potential cargo inspections in regions deemed unfriendly. Here it is important to note that the Yekaterinburg-based Aviacon Zitotrans was added to the U.S. Treasury Department’s sanctions list in 2023. The U.S. Government accused the company of transporting cargo for Russian defence firms and delivering military equipment and weapons to sanctioned destinations, including Venezuela itself.
The latest Russian move in the Caribbean comes as tensions between Venezuela and the U.S. reach new heights. The U.S. has accused Venezuela of being involved in illegal drug trade. In the last two months, the U.S. has deployed 10,000 troops to the Caribbean as part of a military buildup involving warships, F-35 fighter jets, a nuclear-powered attack-submarine and a floating-base for special forces. Trump also declared that he has permitted the U.S. spy agency C.I.A. to conduct covert operations in Venezuela. The military buildup is partly directed at Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro. The U.S. and its allies accused him of committing fraud in the 2024 election. They claimed that the election lacked international standards and transparency. The U.S. has not recognised Maduro’s presidency or maintained diplomatic relations with Venezuela since 2019 … …
For his part, Maduro accused the U.S. of fabricating a war aimed at toppling him. The standoff escalated sharply on 24th October when the U.S. Department of War ordered the deployment of the world’s biggest aircraft carrier – the U.S.S. Gerald Ford – to sail to the Caribbean. The Department of War headed by Pete Hegseth courted further controversy when the Reuters news agency reported that U.S. military personnel involved in the Latin American operations were forced to sign non-disclosure agreements – an unprecedented step that raises suspicions of excessive secrecy.
In recent weeks, the U.S. has conducted fewer than a dozen strikes against drug boats in the Caribbean off the coast of Venezuela, killing 57 people. On 27th October, Hegseth said that U.S. forces killed 14 people in strikes on four alleged drug boats, this time in the eastern Pacific. The strikes drew instant condemnation. Some questioned their legality. They warned that the scale of the U.S. deployment far exceeds the actual needs of an operation to combat drug-trafficking. Mexico said that international law must be respected. Some U.S. lawmakers voiced concern over the strikes, too. Despite claiming that the targeted vessels were carrying drugs to the U.S., the Trump Government did not produce evidence to support its claims about the boats, their connection to drug-cartels, or even the identity of the people killed in the strikes.
President Trump’s hardline stance is driven not only by an ideological push to remove President Maduro, but also by a strategic aim to secure U.S. influence over Latin America’s vital oil resources especially as China and Russia expand their footprint in the region. China imports large quantities of oil from Venezuela. Venezuela sits close to the Panama Canal, one of the world’s most vital shipping arteries and only about 1,700 kilometres from the U.S. mainland, well within range of medium-range missiles. For Beijing, location is the real reason why Venezuela has become one of China’s closest partners.
As for Russia, it maintains a strategic partnership with Venezuela, too. In May 2025, President Vladimir Putin of Russia signed a Strategic Partnership and Cooperation Treaty with President Maduro in Moscow. It entered into force on 27th October. This 25-article agreement elevates ties to a new level, covering energy, mining, trade and investment. Russia’s support to Venezuela is most visible in defence, where it has supplied over 4 billion dollars worth of weapons, including jets, tanks and drones. Besides a Russian cargo plane landing in Caracas, Russian special forces are reported to have trained Venezuelan troops to counter an invasion or a coup.
Speculation is also rife that the Wagner Group has been tasked with President Maduro’s security. The Wagner Group is a Russian State-funded private military company that was controlled until 2023 by the late Yevgeny Prigozhin, a close ally of President Putin.The Wagner Group is now largely integrated into Russia’s military structure as the so-called Africa Corps. In 2024, Wagner-affiliated fighters were spotted training Venezuelan security forces and embedding with local police during post-election protests. Some commentators have suggested that the Wagner Group could offer defensive capabilities to the Venezuelan forces or help President Maduro’s potential evacuation to Moscow if a U.S.-backed intervention takes place. It fits Russia’s pattern of using mercenaries as deniable assets to extend influence without full military commitment.
The Wagner Group’s footprint in Venezuela is not new. In 2019, its forces were deployed for several months after Juan Guaido challenged President Maduro’s hold on power. In 2023 and 2024, a smaller presence of its fighters was again seen for giving security to mining activity and suppression of protests after the July 2024 presidential election. The most recent activity centres on the arrival of a transport plane operated by the U.S.-sanctioned company Aviacon Zitotrans, which has deep ties to the Wagner Group. This company has in the past ferried weapons, helicopters and mercenaries to African conflict zones. It carried an undisclosed cargo, speculated to include up to 200 personnel or advisers and 50 tons of weapons. The landing coincided with U.S. strikes on Venezuelan-linked narco-vessels and Trump’s threats of direct action against President Maduro.
Russia’s strategic pivot to Latin America notwithstanding, the U.S. is all in to unseat President Maduro. The U.S.-based Associated Press news agency reported that a U.S. agent tried to bribe President Maduro’s pilot to divert his plane so that U.S. authorities could capture him. In exchange, the U.S. agent told the pilot in a clandestine meeting that he would be made a very rich man. The plot was hatched when a person showed up at the U.S. Embassy in the Dominican Republic in April 2024, when Joe Biden was the U.S. President. But the agent kept in touch with the pilot even after President Trump came to occupy the White House. The agent contacted the pilot again on 7th August, attaching a link to a press release issued by the U.S. Justice Department announcing that the reward for President Maduro’s arrest had risen to 50 million dollars. The Associated Press report detailed a 16-month covert operation that ultimately failed to topple President Maduro. On 24th September, the pilot resurfaced on a widely followed Venezuelan T.V. show hosted by the country’s Interior Minister. The Minister laughed off any suggestion that Venezuela’s military could be bought off.
Meanwhile, Trump’s military manoeuvres in the Caribbean have strained relations with the U.S.’ longtime partners such as Colombia. Recent U.S. military strikes on alleged drug boats killed several Colombian nationals, prompting outrage in Bogota. President Gustavo Petro screamed bloody murder. He said that the U.S. Government strategy breaks the norms of international law. Once a close ally in the U.S. war on drugs, Colombia historically received hundreds of millions of dollars annually in military-aid to combat drug gangs. The U.S. military provided training and equipment to Colombia which led to some milestones, including the killing of drug lord Pablo Escobar in 1993. Today, the longstanding partnership is under unprecedented strain between Bogota and Washington, D.C. over sovereignty, security and the fight against narcotics. Things have come to such a pass that the Trump Government has imposed sanctions on President Petro and his family, accusing him of failing to curb drug-trafficking and allowing cartels to flourish.
Trinidad and Tobago is another country that’s seen its ties with Venezuela go downhill. The Maduro Government suspended a gas deal with Trinidad and Tobago, as U.S. warships arrived for joint exercises near the coast of Venezuela. Trinidad and Tobago is a twin-island nation of 1.4 million people. Some of its citizens welcomed their Government’s show of support for the U.S. military campaign in the region but others worried about getting caught up in a conflict between Washington, D.C. and Caracas.