FILE PHOTO: U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth speaks during the Reagan National Defense Forum at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California, U.S., December 6, 2025. REUTERS/Jonathan Alcorn/File Photo

By Phil Stewart, Idrees Ali and Daphne Psaledakis

WASHINGTON, Dec 8 (Reuters) - U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Dan Caine and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio are expected to brief the "Gang of Eight" lawmakers on Tuesday afternoon, according to two sources familiar with the plan and a Trump administration official.

The "Gang of Eight" - intelligence committee and Senate and House of Representatives leaders from both parties - are traditionally briefed on major national security actions.

The sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the plan is not public, did not discuss the nature of the briefing, expected to take place at 3:30 p.m. (2030 GMT).

The disclosure about the briefing comes amid mounting tensions between the United States and Venezuela, as President Donald Trump threatens land strikes against suspected Venezuelan drug traffickers, after more than a three-month military campaign against alleged drug boats in the Caribbean and Pacific.

The U.S. military has also staged a dramatic buildup of warships in the Caribbean, including an aircraft carrier strike group and a nuclear submarine.

Admiral Alvin Holsey, the outgoing commander of the U.S. military's Southern Command, which oversees American troops in Latin America, is also expected to brief a separate group of House and Senate lawmakers on Tuesday, two people familiar with the matter said.

Holsey will step down on Friday, less than two months after making a surprise announcement of an early retirement.

His October 15 statement announcing his departure from U.S. Southern Command came just over a month into the Pentagon's accelerating campaign against suspected drug boats that have resulted in nearly 90 people and raised concerns among Democrats in Congress and many legal experts.

Reuters has heard conflicting accounts surrounding Holsey's departure, with some sources saying he was pushed out of his job by Hegseth, who was frustrated by Southern Command. Holsey has not publicly offered a reason for his early retirement.

Trump's military operations against alleged drug smugglers have been under intense scrutiny following a September 2 decision to launch a second strike on a suspected drug boat in the Caribbean.

The video of the attack viewed by lawmakers last week showed two men clinging to wreckage after their vessel was destroyed in the first strike, according to sources familiar with the imagery. They were shirtless, unarmed and carried no visible communications equipment.

The Defense Department's Law of War Manual forbids attacks on combatants who are incapacitated, unconscious or shipwrecked, as long as they abstain from hostilities and do not attempt to escape. The manual cites firing upon shipwreck survivors as an example of a "clearly illegal" order that should be refused.

The Trump administration has framed the attacks as a war with drug cartels, calling them armed groups and saying the drugs being carried to the United States kill Americans.

(Reporting by Phil Stewart and Idrees Ali and Daphne Psaledakis; Writing by Phil Stewart and Ismail Shakil; Editing by Jacqueline Wong, Leslie Adler and Michael Perry)