Washington has struck several vessels in the Caribbean Sea, killing more than 20. (Archive)

For the better part of a decade, dating back to the first Trump administration, Washington has subjected Venezuela to a murderous economic blockade that has caused hundreds of thousands of deaths.

Trump’s first term and its “maximum pressure” campaign also included support for a self-proclaimed parallel government, a failed military putsch and a mercenary invasion, as well as overt threats of a military intervention that never materialized.

Now on its second go, the Trump administration is escalating its attacks on the military front. In recent weeks, a large-scale US Navy deployment has stationed itself in the Caribbean Sea with a declared mission to fight “drug trafficking.”

This rebooted gunboat diplomacy has already claimed victims. Since the beginning of September, US forces have bombed four small boats that had departed from Venezuela, with Trump officials claiming they were carrying US-bound narcotics. 21 civilians were reportedly killed in the four strikes which took place in international waters.

Murder on the high seas

The US military strikes on the Venezuelan speedboats were surrounded by plenty of bluster and very little information. Trump and other officials claimed that the assassinated crewmen were dangerous “narcoterrorists” on their way to poison US communities with cocaine and fentanyl. To date, they have provided zero evidence to back up these claims.

There has been no information on the people who were killed, neither has there been any intel provided about the vessels’ purported cargo. During the first attack, according to anonymous military sources, the boat turned around after spotting US aircraft, and drones struck it repeatedly to kill crew members who had survived the first strike.

Not even the most one-eyed propagandists can claim that the only way to stop drugs from reaching US soil is by blowing up vessels thousands of miles away. The US is not just the biggest consumer of narcotics; it is also home to the banks that launder billions of dollars of drug money. The eternal “war on drugs” is not about fighting the drug trade but using it to expand US hegemony.

The Trump administration did not invent extra-territorial assassinations. Its predecessors even extra-judicially killed US citizens in faraway lands. However, the brazenness of murdering civilians in boats that could have easily been intercepted and seized has led to some domestic pushback. Trump will not lose any sleep over matters of legality, as long as it does not bring a political cost.

The rise of the hawks

The White House’s foreign policy towards Venezuela saw the emergence of two well-defined camps even before Trump took office in January.

The first one is heavily centered on Florida politicians, who in turn have close and public ties to Venezuelan far-right sectors. It openly promotes regime change as a non-negotiable goal, regardless of whether that involves killing tens of thousands of civilians via a military invasion or economic sanctions. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is its most prominent voice.

On the other hand, there is a “MAGA” sector that opposes the USA’s endless regime-change campaigns and instead argues for leveraging US sanctions to favor US corporations as a way to counter growing “Chinese influence” in the hemisphere. This is the perspective of Richard Grenell, White House Special Envoy for Venezuela.

The first few months of Trump 2.0 saw the two groups vie for control. After a lot of back and forth over Chevron’s presence in Venezuela, the pragmatist sector gained an edge when the administration allowed the company to resume its operations in the country in late July.

But with overt military threats on Venezuela’s doorstep, and with strikes inside the country’s territory reportedly under consideration, it is clear that the Rubio camp is presently in the driver’s seat. 

The “narcoterrorism” tale

Washington’s military build-up has come alongside a propaganda campaign accusing Caracas of “narcoterrorism” and “flooding” the US with drugs. This is a reheated false narrative that has not aged particularly well, but the truth is often a victim of imperialism.

The Trump administration has hyped up the threat posed by Tren de Aragua and Cartel de los Soles, accusing the Maduro government of supporting the former and directly running the latter. Both have been declared as foreign terrorist organizations, and the US State Department even announced a $50 million bounty for information leading to Maduro’s arrest.

In the case of Tren de Aragua, a criminal outfit that used to operate one of Venezuela’s most notorious prisons, US intelligence has dismissed the administration’s narrative altogether. A leaked report concluded that although the organization may have cells operating in different countries embedded within Venezuelan migration, it had no centralized command structure, let alone ties to the government.

With Cartel de los Soles, a drug organization purportedly run by high-ranking Caracas officials, the picture is even bleaker. Despite the cartel popping up regularly in US official discourse, there has never been any court-tested evidence of narcotics activities by this cartel or of any involvement from Maduro and other high-ranking figures.

It is a fact that Venezuela’s economic crisis, heavily compounded by US sanctions, has created terrible hardships for the Venezuelan people. This has made some towns, particularly in coastal areas, vulnerable to the “opportunities” offered by drug smuggling. Yet even these activities – themselves an indirect consequence of the US siege – are really minor in the big picture.

Drug trafficking reports from pro-Washington think tanks, UN agencies and even the DEA itself have all found over the years that less than 10 percent of US-bound cocaine flows through Venezuela and the Eastern Caribbean corridor. Instead, most of the narcotics exit Colombia through the Pacific and reach the US via Washington-allied nations in Central America.

An unusual and extraordinary threat

If the drug trafficking narrative is not convincing, it is because it is mostly theatre for Trump’s domestic base. Faced with one international setback after another, from tariffs to the Ukraine war, the reactionary White House is attempting to use Rambo antics against small boats in the Caribbean Sea to appear tough.

Though Trump’s actions may be hard to predict, there should be no uncertainty for leftist and anti-imperialist activists and movements around the world. Because regardless of the tactics and the accompanying narrative, the ultimate objective of Washington’s Venezuela foreign policy remains the same: regime change.

Venezuela is home to the world’s largest oil reserves and a slew of other strategic resources. A puppet government that sold sovereignty at a discount would represent a bonanza for US monopoly capital.

But it is not just about underground riches. For the past quarter-century, Venezuela has been home to a revolutionary project that has openly challenged US hegemony in its own backyard. That is what makes it an “unusual and extraordinary threat,” and what puts it permanently on the frontlines of the struggle against imperialism.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect those of the Venezuelanalysis editorial staff.

Source: Sovereign Media