US President Donald Trump said on November 27 that operations to combat Venezuelan drug trafficking "by land" would begin "very soon", escalating tensions with Caracas amid a major American military build-up in the Caribbean.

Speaking to service members via video call from his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida on Thanksgiving, Trump said maritime operations had already curbed sea-borne trafficking by approximately 85%.

"We've almost stopped — it's about 85% stopped by sea," Trump said, de facto confirming earlier reports of imminent military action. "And we'll be starting to stop them by land also. The land is easier, but that's going to start very soon."

Several military units participating in the call are directly involved in the anti-narcotics initiative officially dubbed "Southern Spear", which has seen US forces conduct more than 20 strikes on alleged drug vessels in the Caribbean and Pacific waters since early September, killing more than 80 people, according to publicly available figures.

The USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier, the world’s largest, arrived in Caribbean waters earlier this month, contributing to what analysts describe as the region's largest American military presence in more than three decades. The carrier strike group includes at least seven other warships, a nuclear submarine and F-35 aircraft, bringing total personnel to approximately 15,000.

Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro has rejected Washington's accusations that he is involved in drug trafficking, denouncing the military build-up and anti-narcotics campaign as a covert effort to remove him from power and steal the country’s oil wealth.

The Trump administration earlier this month designated the "Cartel de Los Soles" - a group Washington alleges is run by Maduro - as a foreign terrorist organisation. Venezuela dismissed the organisation as "nonexistent" and called the designation a "vile lie". The cartel’s very existence is also disputed by independent analysts, who argue that narco-trafficking actors in Venezuela are not centralised and operate at small scale.

The assembled US military presence substantially exceeds what would typically be required for counter-narcotics operations alone, leading many defence analysts to suggest the true aim may be regime change.

Trump also indicated he remained open to potential diplomatic talks with Maduro, suggesting a possible avenue for de-escalation, or at least peaceful exit for the embattled leftist autocrat, despite the military pressure.

Maduro, who claimed re-election last year in a vote rejected by much of the international community as fraudulent, has reached out for help to Russia and China, and vowed that Venezuela and its armed forces would resist any American attempts at regime change.