Trump Administration Negotiating Venezuela Agreement on Possible Long-Term U.S. Military Presence
The Trump administration is negotiating an agreement with Venezuela that would lay the foundation for a potential long-term U.S. military presence in the country, according to The New York Times. The report describes the talks as ongoing, and the terms of any final deal have not been made public.
The idea of American forces on Venezuelan soil has been discussed for months, and the positions have shifted. In November 2025, President Donald Trump said he would not rule out deploying U.S. troops on the ground in Venezuela. In January 2026, the U.S. Defense Department said the United States had no troops in Venezuela.
The military backdrop to the current talks began to take shape in late 2025. The New York Times reported that Trump had signed a secret directive ordering the Pentagon to carry out military operations against Latin American drug cartels. The White House has said the United States launched the largest buildup of American forces in the Caribbean in generations to bring Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro to justice, and that military action involving Maduro took place in early 2026 following that buildup and a bombing campaign.
Oil has also been part of the relationship. In January, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said the United States would take between 30 and 50 million barrels of oil from Venezuela. The White House has said it secured an agreement from Venezuela to turn over that quantity of sanctioned oil, meaning crude subject to U.S. sanctions, a set of financial and trade restrictions imposed by a government on a country, company or person. The White House also said the U.S. had seized sanctioned Venezuelan oil. In a release dated November 2, it said the first million barrels under the deal reached Texas in October 2026 at zero cost to taxpayers.
Diplomacy continued alongside these developments. On November 2, Rubio met his Venezuelan counterpart in Washington. The two discussed progress in Venezuelan-led reconciliation talks, which are negotiations among the country's own political groups, according to the Associated Press. The United States also pressed Venezuela to move forward on preparations for elections.
