What the Trump admin. is doing in the Caribbean is murder and a war crime. They can lie and try to justify it all that they want but it doesn’t hold up under scrutiny. If their goal was to stop the drug trafficking then why is Trump pardoning them?
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In surprise move, head of US military for Latin America to step down, was the headline a month ago when Adm. Alvin Holsey, the commander of U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM), announced his unexpected retirement less than a year after assuming the role. Guess why he stepped down?
As the Democrats and Trump fight over this issue the service members could become divided as well. It has also dominated the news cycle taking over for the Epstein files as the latest distraction.
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The warmongers in Washington DC don’t seem to be getting the usual dose of death and destruction, so they’re now frantically looking for an excuse to destroy yet another sovereign country, which happens to be the “Number One Oil and Gas Economy Worldwide”.
Namely, The MAGA Trump adminstration is now desperate to attack Venezuela, no matter the cost.
Numerous attempts to stage coups and other forms of civil unrest to topple the legitimate government proved ineffective.
The Venezuelan people remember the time when they were effectively treated as slaves by the US (neo)colonial system, so they’re not exactly too keen on returning to that status.
Thus, Trump is now blaming Caracas for its fentanyl addiction epidemic, with the latest designation including the infamous “chemical weapons threat” to the US.
Yes, you read that right.
Venezuela is suddenly a “WMD threat” because “its mythical fentanyl is reaching America”.
Multiple blatant lies need to be unpacked and dissected in this case.
First, the idea that Caracas is behind the fentanyl epidemic in the US is beyond laughable.
And second, if fentanyl is a chemical weapon, then the Trump administration should investigate the various U.S agencies that have been directly involved in drug smuggling for well over half a century.
Unfortunately, the truth doesn’t matter to Washington DC. Thus, it didn’t take long for President Nicolás Maduro to go from “Venezuelan Pablo Escobar” to “Venezuelan Saddam Hussein”. In a twisted way, this is a somewhat positive revelation, as it’s effectively an admission as to why the US is so keen on invading Venezuela.
Namely, Washington DC used this excuse to destroy at least half a dozen countries in the Middle East, most notably Iraq.
However, this was only the beginning, followed by similar accusations that gave the US a perfect pretext to invade other oil-rich countries.
The very idea that Venezuela would want to be a “WMD threat” to America at a time when a massive naval force is just waiting to invade is beyond ridiculous.
However, that’s precisely the excuse peddled by the mainstream media and various “security think tanks”. Namely, according to the Wall Street Journal, a classified Department of Justice (DoJ) brief “authorizing strikes on drug-smuggling boats describes fentanyl as a potential chemical weapons threat, according to a House member and another person familiar with the memo”.
The report cites “a lengthy document by the department’s Office of Legal Counsel, which lays out the legal justification of the Trump administration for continuing military operations in the southern Caribbean with an eye on Venezuela”. This revelation came mere hours after US War Secretary Pete Hegseth announced Trump’s “Operation Southern Spear”, which is the last step before an actual, full-scale invasion of Venezuela.
“Led by Joint Task Force Southern Spear and SOUTHCOM, this mission defends our Homeland, removes narco-terrorists from our Hemisphere, and secures our Homeland from the drugs that are killing our people,” Hegseth said, adding: “The Western Hemisphere is America’s neighborhood – and we will protect it.”
Obviously, the US “never attacks” other countries. It’s “only defending”.
This “defense” extends to virtually every part of the planet, including Serbia/former Yugoslavia, Ukraine, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Yemen, Iran, Afghanistan, etc. In addition, the US has “legitimate interests” in the Persian Gulf, the East and South China Seas, but Iran (Persia) and China “don’t”, according to this “logic”. Still, the US “has the right” to proclaim an entire hemisphere “its backyard”.
The “chemical weapons/WMD” narrative is there just to give the “perfect pretext” for yet another invasion that would stifle all “dangerous ideas”, such as the belief in self-determination and true democracy (although a new word is needed to describe the will of the people, as this one has been forever smeared by US/NATO aggression against the world).
In purely legal terms, the Trump administration’s main argument is that the designation of drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations (FTO) makes them legitimate military targets, asserting they’re smuggling drugs to “fund deadly and destabilizing actions against the US and its allies”.
The WSJ report further states that “the mention of fentanyl is one of many points in the brief, which was drafted over the summer to justify the use of military force against drug traffickers”.
Obviously, these drug traffickers are Venezuelans, right? Well, not really. Namely, according to its own admission, the Pentagon doesn’t know who the people in these boats were.
In other words, they could indeed be drug traffickers, but they could also be simple fishermen.
Still, what’s definitely not known is whether they’re Venezuelans at all. And yet, even the legal claim that they’re a “chemical weapons threat” to the US doesn’t really hold. The WSJ report further states that “the legal case for military action doesn’t rest on concerns about chemical-weapons use” and even questions whether Venezuela is truly involved in the fentanyl trade. In other words, even the mainstream propaganda machine is refusing to make a direct accusation against Caracas, although it claims that Venezuela is a “transit zone” for Colombian cocaine.
“Venezuela, a base for one of the criminal groups designated as a terrorist organization, has long been a transit route for Colombian cocaine. There is no evidence it produces or traffics fentanyl, which is typically made in Mexico and smuggled over land,” the report noted, also quoting Brian Finucane, a former legal adviser to the State Department during the Obama and the first Trump administration, who said: “It is an incredible stretch.”
However, other state institutions are directly contributing to the fake narrative that Venezuela is involved with a combination of factual data and blatantly false reporting in the American media. Namely, the Center for Disease Control’s (CDC) National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) states that “fentanyl depresses central nervous system (CNS) and respiratory function” and that “exposure to fentanyl may be fatal”, as it has a “potency at least 80 times that of morphine”. Needless to say, this is true. However, what’s not true is that Venezuela is behind smuggling fentanyl into the US. As the WSJ report claims, fentanyl supposedly comes from México. This is yet to be proven, but let’s assume it’s true. So, México would have to ship the drug to Venezuela and then to the US, which makes little to no sense.
However, it doesn’t matter whether things make any sense as long as the war junkies in Washington DC get their dose of death and destruction. Whether it’s WMDs, terrorism, autocracy or any other pretext you can imagine, the US-led political West is determined to continue its aggression against the entire world. Now, the rest of the planet (approximately 80% of the global population) needs to make a decision – do we continue to look the other way or do we finally unite and make a stand against imperialism?
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Drago Bosnicis an independent geopolitical and military analyst. He is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG).
Well now it appears that the shoe is on the other foot as Russia is directly supplying Venezuela with offensive and defensive weapons, just as NATO and the US have been directly supplying Ukraine in their proxy war against Russia.
Venezuelan President Maduro has asked Russia, China and Iran for urgent military support, according to The Washington Post The request for Russia includes missiles, radar overhauls, and aircraft repairs. Caracas has also sought aid from China and Iran, asking for drones, detection systems, and GPS jammers to bolster defenses. So what happened?
Earlier this week, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Venezuela covering defense, political and economic sectors. Afterwards, Russian military cargo planes began arriving. Analysts said the aircraft may have delivered as much as 34 tons of material, including portable air-defense systems and air-to-air missiles.
According to reports The Il-76 transport plane, registered as RA-78765, departed the Moscow area on 24 October and landed in Venezuela on 26 October after stops in Armenia, Algeria, Morocco, Senegal, and Mauritania.
The aircraft reportedly remained in Caracas for about 45 hours before departing for Cuba. Gee what countries have we been talking a lot about recently? The same countries that Dumitru Dudaman talked about during his American Church tours of the 80s. In the vision that God gave Dumitru he saw Cuba, Nicaragua, Mexico and two other Latin/South American countries he couldn’t remember would participate in a war against America. It appears those two countries are going to be Venezuela and possibly Colombia.
In regard to what Russia has said today regarding Venezuela and their requests for aid. The Russian government appeared to send a warning to the Trump administration over its pressure campaign against Venezuela, saying Moscow stands “ready to respond appropriately to the requests of our partners in light of emerging threats.”
“We support the leadership of Venezuela in defending its national sovereignty, taking into account the dynamics of the international & regional situation” said press official Maria Zakharova, according to a social media publication from the Russian Foreign Ministry. Source Latin Times
Given the U.S. military buildup off the coast of Venezuela, the probability that Russia transferred possible air defense equipment, or worse, anti-ship weapons, is a significant development.
Of course many in the Trump administration think that Russia is bluffing and that they won’t help Maduro directly in a war. They must be forgetting about the massive arsenal of Russian weapons, mainly nuclear powered missiles and torpedoes like the Poseidon super torpedo Russia tested the other day.
Still the Trump administration is moving forward and is making plans for war in Venezuela. The Wall Street Journal detailed that the targets are considered nexus between the Nicolas Maduro regime and drug-trafficking organizations. They include military ports and airports, as well as naval facilities and airstrips. The administration continues to use the drug war as their excuse while anyone with more than 2 functioning brain cells knows that this isn’t about drugs.
When asked about Maduro’s appeal to Russia, Trump told reporters, “If Russia or anyone else wants to get involved in that mess, they’ll regret it. We know what’s happening in our hemisphere.” This statement was interpreted by analysts as a warning shot — suggesting Washington will not tolerate a Russian military footprint in the Americas, a region long considered under the Monroe Doctrine sphere of U.S. influence. Source Defense News
We have all kinds of rumors of war flying around today. As I’m typing this it appears Venezuela is having massive GPS interference that just lit up northern Venezuela and Trinidad like a Christmas tree, and nobody’s saying why. This started out of nowhere. Planes, boats, and anyone trying to navigate with a phone? Good luck.
Last but definitely not least it appears that the DOD has sent the long range Tomahawks to Ukraine with the final decision to use them left up to Trump. That is all the more reason for Russia to strike the USA directly as the USA is definitely planning on striking them. Remember the Tomahawks are all American, being fired by Americans, using American satellites and GPS to guide them to their targets in Russia. If that’s not getting directly involved I don’t know what is.
I will keep my eyes on this as usual but I believe we are seeing the Dumitru Duduman prophecy about America/Mystery Babylon coming to pass! In case you’re not familiar with that prophecy, the short version is in this video link. Here is a link to his book that contain these prophecies as well as his life story which is very interesting. This man went through the fires indeed!
As for our housing situation we are still up against it. Thank you very much to those who have already supported but we are still about $744 short! If you’d like to help we have until tomorrow to make it happen! I do have an inner peace today after a rough night last night. Thank you very much for the prayers as most of all, including those for my grandson Christian and his grandmother Retha. Christian lost his dad, my son in law Monday evening.
Disclosure statement: The link to the book is my Amazon affiliate link so I would receive a small commission when you purchase the book but it does not affect the price. It helps pay for items we need here at home like the Vitamin C and Zinc I bought last week.
Blessings to you and stay ready! Prayed up and prepped up!
PS I do plan on putting this into a video today God willing, I just have a few other things to attend to as you can imagine.
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Guest Post by Peter Koenig from Global Research. Reposted with permission.
What we observe today in the Middle East is Israel attempting to expand to the “Greater-Greater Israel”, including Iran and possibly Iraq.
It is the Oded Yinon Plan of the early 1980s, not known to most people even Israelis.
The plan goes way beyond the Greater Israel plan. Pursing this plan means endless war and bloodshed.
Neither Israelis nor anybody else in the world wants this.
So, its existence – let alone talking openly about – is immediately and politically silenced.
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On the other side of the Atlantic, President Trump is attempting to revive and impose the 1823 Monroe Doctrine 2.0, beginning with Venezuela and now also Colombia. All under the pretext of fighting drug trafficking.
He recently insulted Colombia’s President Petro, calling him a chief drug trafficker and stopped all financial transactions with Colombia, including what he calls “aid” to Colombia.
The world, however, knows or should know that the US is by far the globe’s biggest drug (and human) trafficker.
Even Trump, during his election campaign often referred to the US’ involvement in drug and human trafficking. That is one of the reasons why he was – and still is – so adamant in stopping immigration.
So, what you see in the Middle East and in the Caribbean is not what meets the eye.
The plan for “Greater-Greater Israel”, destruction of Iran (which in the original Greater Israel was not included), which will also attempt to block the Strait of Hormuz, to cut off the rest of the western world from hydrocarbon energy, especially China (Israel does the dirty job for the US, supported with US weaponry and money).
Close to 35% of oil and gas – the main source of worldwide energy – is shipped through the Strait of Hormuz.
China is clearly targeted, number ONE for Trump and his handlers.
On the other hand, Trump is trying to take over Venezuela, with the world’s largest hydrocarbon resources, replacing those from the Gulf States, first for MAGA, of course, second for all those puppets who remain obedient to King Donald. A perfect scenario.
To disguise his intentions, in his Trump Social platform, he is ramping against two oil-rich countries, US neighbors. He is now also accusing Gustavo Petro, President of Colombia, as being a drug trafficker. As long as much of Latin America still largely depends on the US dollar, the notorious dollar sanction is still a major issue for many, if not most, Latin American countries (LAC).
Mr. Trump and his economic advisors believe this, coupled with Trump’s wild and incoherent tariff policy, will also reverse the international monetary and trade flow in favor of the US, away from and against China.
This is a wrong concept because the monetary / trade flow in favor of China involves not just the yuan, but all those local currencies of the BRICS and BRICS associates, commanding a total of 40% to 50% or world GDP. Many of them are closely linked to the yuan and keep distancing themselves from the US dollar and its sanction policies.
Even if the BRICS have little else in common, they all want to trade outside of the US dollar stranglehold, and stick to their local currencies and to the yuan.
China has no problem getting energy from Russia, Kazakhstan, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, and other Asian / ASEAN associates.
Once Trump realizes that there is nothing left but a hot war with China, which means also with Russia, and all the SCO members plus other China associates, the end game may begin, or explode.
Not even his self-declared “grandeur” has a chance to survive such a WWIII-type aggression.
That might be the final demise of the US / Trump Kingdom.
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Peter Koenig is a geopolitical analyst, regular author for Global Research, and a former Economist at the World Bank and the World Health Organization (WHO), where he worked for over 30 years around the world. He is the author of Implosion – An Economic Thriller about War, Environmental Destruction and Corporate Greed; and co-author of Cynthia McKinney’s book “When China Sneezes: From the Coronavirus Lockdown to the Global Politico-Economic Crisis” (Clarity Press – November 1, 2020).
Peter is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG). He is also a non-resident Senior Fellow of the Chongyang Institute of Renmin University, Beijing.
President Gustavo Petro Dismissed as A Lunatic which is actually a more accurate description of Rubio and others in the Trump administration. Johnny
On October 22, President Trump’s Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, dismissed Colombian President Gustavo Petro as a “lunatic.” Rubio mad the remark after Petro denounced the US for murdering fishermen erroneously described as “narcoterrorists” on an improbable run in the Caribbean to deliver illegal drugs to the United States.
“I think the Colombian authorities, when it comes to, like, the military and the police, are still very pro-American. The only problem in Colombia is a lunatic president,” Rubio said. “The guy’s a lunatic—a lunatic!—and he’s not well,” the Secretary of State added.
The Trump administration insists Petro has failed to adequately combat drug trafficking. On October 19, on his “Truth” social, Trump took the accusation a step further. He said
Petro “is an illegal drug leader strongly encouraging the massive production of drugs, in big and small fields, all over Colombia.”
Here is a truth social post Trump put up on Oct. 19th 2025.
President Gustavo Petro, of Colombia, is an illegal drug leader strongly encouraging the massive production of drugs, in big and small fields, all over Colombia. It has become the biggest business in Colombia, by far, and Petro does nothing to stop it, despite large scale payments and subsidies from the USA that are nothing more than a long term rip off of America. AS OF TODAY, THESE PAYMENTS, OR ANY OTHER FORM OF PAYMENT, OR SUBSIDIES, WILL NO LONGER BE MADE TO COLOMBIA. The purpose of this drug production is the sale of massive amounts of product into the United States, causing death, destruction, and havoc. Petro, a low rated and very unpopular leader, with a fresh mouth toward America, better close up these killing fields immediately, or the United States will close them up for him, and it won’t be done nicely. Thank you for your attention to this matter! President Donald J. Trump
The purpose of this drug production is the sale of massive amounts of product into the United States, causing death, destruction, and havoc. Petro, a low rated and very unpopular leader, with a fresh mouth toward America, better close up these killing fields immediately, or the United States will close them up for him, and it won’t be done nicely.
Rubio’s remarks on Colombian “narcoterrorism” should be put in context. Omitted from the accusation that Petro traffics drugs is an allegation that the former president of Colombia was linked to the Medellín Cartel and death squads.
Rubio’s Close Relationship with Álvaro Uribe
Image: Álvaro Uribe (CC BY-SA 2.0)
The former president of Colombia, Álvaro Uribe, had two convictions for fraud and bribery overturned on October 21. The rightwing politician, backed by Trump during his first administration, was convicted of bribing imprisoned paramilitaries to discredit claims he was linked to their organizations.
“Colombia’s judicial system found former President Álvaro Uribe Vélez guilty of witness tampering, specifically for abuse of process and bribing a public official,” according to Gimena Sánchez-Garzoli, writing for the Washington Office on Latin America.
Uribe collaborated with paramilitary death squads during Colombia’s war against FARC (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarios de Colombia), a revolutionary group formed in 1964 by the Colombian Communist Party to defend what were then autonomous Communist-controlled rural areas. He faced numerous allegations of human rights abuses during his stint in office from 2002 to 2010. Uribe turned a blind eye to extrajudicial killings and massacres by death squads, according to human rights organizations.
During the first Trump administration, then senators Marco Rubio and Bob Menendez (later convicted on corruption charges), both serving as members on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, shared a “close relationship” with Uribe. Rubio stated that he is “a big fan of President Uribe,” while “multiple sources confirm that Rubio and Uribe are in constant communication, while others confirm that Uribe is a frequent fixture in the U.S. Congress.”
This support was evident last year when Uribe held a conference in Miami. During the event, Rubio, accompanied by Representatives Mario Diaz-Balart and Carlos Curbelo, applauded Uribe as, “a leader who stands up for democracy in Colombia and the threat of a possible leftist tyranny backed by Cuba and Venezuela.”
Rubio believes “the United States should continue to support Colombia’s efforts to combat terrorism and narcotics,” despite an allegation that the former Colombian president was a cartel operative.
Uribe’s Link to Pablo Escobar and the Medellín Cartel
In 1991, a US Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) report was released under a Freedom of Information Act request filed by the National Security Archives (NSA). The report “placed Uribe, then a senator, among Colombia’s top narcotrafficking figures,” and said he was “dedicated to collaboration with the Medellin Cartel at high government levels” and was “a close personal friend of Pablo Escobar,” according to the NSA.
A diplomatic cable listed Uribe as a Colombian “Narcopols,” and further stated that “an Uribe ally told the Embassy that the notorious Ochoa Vásquez brothers, co-founders of the Medellín Cartel, had ‘financed’ Uribe’s Senate campaign.” Moreover, according to the NSA, documents “reinforce the idea that Uribe’s links to the illegal militias have always been something of an open secret, part of a wider acceptance of paramilitaries among certain Colombian elites.”
“Washington portrays Uribe as a key ally in the war on drugs and terrorism, boasting that his administration has extradited 150 accused traffickers to the US, more than twice the number extradited in his predecessor’s four-year term,” notes the NSA’s David Bloom, citing an article in The New York Times. “But there have been persistent claims that as chief of Colombia’s civil aviation authority in the late 1980s, Uribe protected drug flights. When he was governor of Antioquia between 1995 and 1997, paramilitary activity exploded in the department.”
Targeting Leftist Governments, Not Drugs
Image: President Gustavo Petro Urrego of Colombia addresses the UN General Assembly in 2023 (Photo credit: UN)
The problem for the US with Gustavo Petro is not drugs. It is the fact he is a leftist with an ambitious agenda. In late 2022, with the help of centrist and right-wing parties (the “Historic Pact”), he passed a progressive tax reform. The law increased taxes on Colombia’s top earners and established higher royalties on the extraordinary profits in the extractive industries.
“For the first time in many decades we are talking about taxing the upper echelons of the population in order to finance spending and investments for the poorest people of this country,” Petro said.
In addition, Petro’s government initiated “Total Peace,” a plan to negotiate with all the armed forces operating in Colombia in an effort to end decades-long armed conflict that has killed hundreds of the thousands of Colombians.
César Bowley Castillo, a scholar of Colombian social movements, notes a number of foreign policy achievements attributed to the Petro government.
“Petro’s been a leader on Palestine, and this has created space for other Latin American leaders to take similar stances. Petro has now stopped shipping Colombian coal to Israel. And he’s been a leader on climate. He’s also reestablished relations with Cuba and Venezuela, something no previous president would have done,” Castillo said.
In regard to Venezuela, Petro has worked with Nicolás Maduro on issues of mutual concern, an effort that no doubt alarms the Trump administration. The Colombian president declared “that Colombia and Venezuela are the same people, the same flag, and the same history.” Petro made the remarks “in defense of Venezuela and in response to the threats from the United States,” Natalia Falah wrote for Colombia One in August.
In September, Petro went before the U.N. General Assembly and called for a criminal investigation against President Donald Trump and other officials involved in deadly strikes on fishing boats in the Caribbean that the White House insists were transporting drugs.
“Criminal proceedings must be opened against those officials, who are from the U.S., even if it includes the highest-ranking official who gave the order: President Trump,” Petro said. He said the boat passengers were not members of the Tren de Aragua gang, as claimed by the Trump administration. “They said that the missiles in the Caribbean were used to stop drug trafficking. That is a lie stated here in this very rostrum,” Petro said.
On October 22, Trump expanded his attacks to the Pacific Ocean, where he targeted a vessel off the coast of Colombia, killing two people. It was the ninth attack on vessels the Trump administration insists are operated by “narcoterrorists” attempting to smuggle drugs into the United States.
Manifest Destiny Reprise
The United States has a long history of attacking and undermining governments in Latin America, beginning as early as 1846 with the doctrine of Manifest Destiny and the war against Mexico. In the 1850s, the US intervened in Nicaragua and Panama, the latter at the behest of the Atlantic-Pacific railroad. 1898 brought war with Spain and the US occupation of Cuba, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines. In the early 20th century, the US passed the Platt Amendment, giving it a freehand to intervene across the Latin America. Cuba, Panama, the Dominican Republic, Colombia, Mexico, Honduras, and Haiti endured US interventions.
“I helped make Mexico, especially Tampico, safe for American oil interests in 1914,” wrote US Marine Major General Smedley Butler. “I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefits of Wall Street. The record of racketeering is long. I helped purify Nicaragua for the international banking house of Brown Brothers in 1909-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for American sugar interests in 1916.”
The “record of racketeering” continues today as Donald Trump attempts to force an updated version of the Monroe Doctrine on Latin America. “It has been the formal policy of our country since President Monroe that we reject the interference of foreign nations in this hemisphere and in our own affairs,” Trump declared during a September 2018 speech before the United Nations.
The current “interference” stems from the involvement of China and Russia in Mexico, Columbia, Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela, Bolivia, Peru, and Ecuador. In addition to foreign trade, in both consumer goods and military hardware, the US has, since the Cold War, attempted to undermine socialist governments in Latin America. The US claimed to be fighting the spread of communism. Its coups and establishment of authoritarian regimes has resulted in widespread death, suffering, and poverty.
Over the last thirty odd years, the has US shifted the focus in Latin America from defeating communism, and later terrorism, to the war on drugs. It can be argued Trump is less interested in combatting the drug cartels than maintaining the “Washington Consensus” of “trade liberalization” enforced by the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and the US Treasury.
“Across Latin America, governments are watching with growing unease as a new kind of Monroe Doctrine seems to be taking shape,” writes Pierre Haski. “Trump seems to draw inspiration from that imperial era.”
Again, the underlying motivation, obfuscated by a claim to be fighting against drugs and narcoterrorists, is to make sure Latin America is dominated by Wall Street interests, and unfriendly leaders such as Maduro and Petro are driven from power and corporations enjoy the freedom to extract oil and critical minerals like lithium and copper without the resistance of nearly 700 million people, more than 170 million of them living in extreme poverty.
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Kurt Nimmo is a journalist, author, and geopolitical analyst, New Mexico, United States. He is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG).
The US struck the eighth boat reportedly involved in drug trafficking in the eastern Pacific Ocean. For the first time, the strike campaign was expanded beyond the Caribbean basin. Plus American farmers are in BIG TROUBLE and need relief funds NOW as their crops sit in limbo due to Trump and his tariffs.
On October 19, President Donald Trump added Colombia to the target list of Latin American countries he insists are behind drug production.
“President Gustavo Petro, of Columbia, is an illegal drug leader strongly encouraging the massive production of drugs, in big and small fields, all over Columbia,” Trump posted on X. “The purpose of this drug production is the sale of massive amounts of product into the United States, causing death, destruction, and havoc.”
🚨 BREAKING: President Trump just utterly NUKED Colombia President Petro and CANCELED subsidies to his country
FAFO!
“President Gustavo Petro, of Columbia, is an illegal drug leader strongly encouraging the massive production of drugs, in big and small fields, all over… pic.twitter.com/cxF4Ms7dJO
Not only did Trump cancel “large scale payments and subsidies from the USA” slated for Colombia, he also ordered his War Department to destroy, in violation of international law and the US Constitution, what he described as a drug-carrying submarine “navigating towards the United States on a well known narcotrafficking transit route.”
He said US intelligence “confirmed this vessel was loaded up with mostly Fentanyl, and other illegal narcotics,” and two of four “terrorists” were killed, while two survivors were returned to Ecuador and Colombia “for detention and prosecution.”
The day after a million or more Americans took to the streets to protest the policies of the Trump administration, including that of his foreign policy, Trump posted from his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida that Colombian President Gustavo Petro “better close up” alleged drug operations “or the United States will close them up for him, and it won’t be done nicely.”
Pedro Sánchez, the Colombian defense minister, refuted Trump’s unverified remarks.
“If there’s a country that has used all its capabilities and also lost men and women fighting drug trafficking … it’s Colombia,” he said. The baseless allegations are “disrespect from Trump to Colombia,” Sánchez added.
Petro weighed in on the claim Colombia is a narcoterrorist state.
“I ask President Trump to contain his oil greed, to think about humanity, to think about the effectiveness of a greater America,” he said.
After the War Department targeted a fishing boat in Colombian territorial waters on September 15, Petro accused the US president of murdering fisherman Alejandro Carranza and two crew members from Trinidad and Tobago.
“The boat was adrift and had its distress signal up due to an engine failure,” he explained.
Petro said Carranza did not have a connection with drug traffickers.
“His daily job is just fishing. Colombia is waiting for an official explanation from the US side.”
The elected government of Gustavo Petro (he won 50.44% of the popular vote), like that of Nicolás Maduro in neighboring Venezuela, is the target of US regime change actions. In January, Petro refused to allow a US military aircraft carrying deported Colombian nationals to land in Colombia. In response, Trump threatened to impose a 50% tariff on the country and implement travel bans and visa revocations for Colombian government officials. In response, Colombia backed down and allowed the deportees to return.
The Pink Tide vs. The Monroe Doctrine
The Trump administration is targeting Colombia and other Latin American countries in response to a so-called “pink tide” (marea rosa) or “turn to the left” (giro a la izquierda). Latin American countries have rejected the “Washington Consensus” of economic “policy prescriptions” (trade liberalization, privatization, and finance liberalization) imposed by the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and the US Treasury. The austerity of these “prescriptions” resulted in social mobilization and a turn toward leftist government.
“The U.S. Government’s aggressive push to expand free trade in Latin America,” writes Nadia Martinez, “helped catapult… new leaders into the presidential palaces,” most notably Hugo Chávez in Venezuela, Evo Morales in Bolivia, and Luiz Inácio “Lula” da Silva in Brazil. The rise of socialism in Latin America drew a sharp response from the United States.
As of 2006, approximately 300 million of Latin America’s 520 million citizens lived under governments that wanted out from under the Washington Consensus that produced “staggering levels of poverty and inequality.” The landslide victory of Hugo Chávez in Venezuela in 1998 resulted in a move to the left by a number of Latin American countries.
“Latin America’s new leftists have produced over the last couple of years their own consensus, a common project to use the centrifugal forces of globalization to loosen Washington’s unipolar grip,” writes Greg Grandin.
Soon after Trump was elected for a second term, Secretary of State Marco Rubio visited El Salvador, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Panama, and the Dominican Republic. Although the administration said the primary reason for the visit was related to immigration and security arrangements, the primary reason was economic: China is the number one trading partner for South America.
“For more than two decades, China has developed close economic and security ties with many Latin American countries, including Brazil, Peru, and Venezuela,” notes the Council on Foreign Relations. “But Beijing’s increasing sway in the region continues to raise concerns in Washington, prompting greater U.S. engagement.”
For Trump, that engagement is murdering fishermen in the territorial waters of Venezuela and Colombia, illegal acts designed to elicit a response.
“While U.S. President Joe Biden saw China as a ‘strategic competitor’ in the region, the reelection of Donald Trump has marked a shift in U.S. policy toward Latin America, characterized by assertive economic measures that experts say could push countries further toward China.”
Image: Official portrait of Kash Patel, director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. (Public Domain)
In response to the “threat” of China in Latin America, the Trump administration has tried to implicate it in its drug trafficking scenario. In June, FBI Director Kash Patel accused China of intentionally exacerbating the fentanyl crisis in the United States as part of a scheme to weaken America by targeting its youth. Patel went on the Joe Rogan podcast and said China is engaged in “chemical warfare” against America. “This isn’t accidental poisoning. This is strategic lethality,” he said. On October 19, Trump told reporters he wants China “to stop with the fentanyl.”
For decades, the so-called “war on drugs” has served as a justification to intervene in Latin America, most notably through Plan Colombia and the Mérida Initiative.
“Bolivian President Luis Arce became the latest regional leader to denounce the United States’ actions, accusing it of disguising geopolitical ambitions under the cloak of narcotics enforcement,” Damsana Ranadhiran wrote in August.
“We know that behind this failed international war on drugs lies the real objective to geopolitically control Latin America for its natural resources and to dismantle organized peoples, so that we cannot follow our own sovereign path,” declared Arce.
On October 19, Trump called Petro a “lunatic” and the “worst president [Colombia] ever had.” The president said Colombia has “no fight against drugs, and I’m stopping all payments to Colombia because they don’t have anything to do with their fight against drugs.”
“President Gustavo Petro, of Columbia (sic)… a low rated and very unpopular leader, with a fresh mouth toward America, better close up these killing fields immediately, or the United States will close them up for him, and it won’t be done nicely,” Trump tweeted.
In response to Trump’s caustic remarks, Colombia recalled its ambassador to the United States, Daniel Garcia-Pena. Trump’s response came the day after Petro accused the United States of murdering fishermen in the Caribbean.
Trump has made no secret of his support of autocrats in Latin America, most notably the disgraced former president of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro, in addition to Nayib Bukele in El Salvador, and the “libertarian” president of Argentina, Javier Milei.
“Donald Trump’s authoritarian style and policies have energized the right and the far right across the hemisphere,” writes Jeff Abbott. The United States “has revived the Monroe Doctrine, which holds that the United States has the right to intervene in Latin America to prevent other countries from gaining influence.”
Trump Sends the CIA to Undermine Venezuela
The Trump administration continues to increase pressure on Venezuela. In an unprecedented move, Trump publicly stated that he has ordered the CIA to conduct subversive operations in the country.
“I authorized for two reasons really,” Trump told reporters. “Number one, they have emptied their prisons into the United States of America… they came in through the border. The other thing are drugs.” In addition to CIA subversion, Trump floated the idea of “land strikes” in Venezuela. Asked for clarification, the president said “we are certainly looking at land now because we’ve got the sea very well under control.”
The CIA has worked to undermine governments in Latin America since the early 1950s. It organized coups and terror operations in Guatemala, Guyana, Cuba, Ecuador, Brazil, Peru, the Dominican Republic, Uruguay, Chile, Bolivia, Argentina, Nicaragua, Honduras, Grenada, El Salvador, Haiti, Panama, and Venezuela.
“The clandestine operations, espionage, secret missions, covert funding, psychological warfare and regime change tactics the U.S. has employed in Latin America for decades, continue today overtly and covertly,” writes Eva Golinger.
Trump has taken this sordid history of subversion and murder to the next level. His maritime strikes likely serve as a precursor of things to come, possibly including a full blown invasion of Venezuela. The US buildup of guided-missile destroyers, F-35B jet fighters, MQ-9 Reaper drones, P-8 Poseidon spy planes, assault ships and a secretive special operations ship, in addition to more than 10,000 troops, may be nothing more than an expensive show of force in an attempt to intimidate Maduro.
However, considering Trump’s aggressive rhetoric and a military buildup that rivals the firepower the US committed to the Battle of Midway during World War II, an invasion is a distinct possibility, if not a foregone conclusion.
Suppose a Russian or Chinese fleet were to station off our coasts in Europe and torpedo boats. We would be in the highest state of alarm and would prepare everything to repel a military attack.
This is not fiction, but exactly what is currently taking place off the coasts of Venezuela, where the US has deployed a war fleet in recent weeks. It includes destroyers, missile-equipped warships, F-35 fighter jets, reconnaissance aircraft, an attack submarine, more than 4,000 Marines, and even a nuclear submarine.
In addition, an estimated 10,000 US military personnel are in the region, mainly in Puerto Rico and on amphibious ships.
This war fleet is not a parade. In recent weeks, the Trump administration ordered at least five deadly attacks on boats it calls “drug boats,” without evidence. Twenty-seven people were killed. In these attacks, there is no question of arrest or trial. The New York City Bar Association condemns these acts of war as “illegal extrajudicial executions — murders.”
As if the maritime attacks were not enough, B-52 bombers were observed close to Venezuelan airspace. At the same time, President Trump openly admitted that he had given the CIA the green light for secret operations in Venezuela, with a broad mandate ranging from cooperation with local opposition groups to lethal actions on Venezuelan territory, according to American sources.
The war deployment and the attacks against the boats are being sold as a “war on drugs,” but that excuse doesn’t hold for two reasons. First, Colombia and Ecuador constitute the main routes for cocaine heading toward the US. Venezuela plays, at most, a secondary role in this drug trade.
Second, it is evident that such a large-scale military buildup is totally unsuitable for an operation against drug trafficking.
A much more aggressive goal is being pursued here. The Trump administration does not say it openly, but it is clear that it is keeping open the option of ground attacks, with the aim of regime change.
Motives Revealed
In Washington’s eyes, Venezuela combines three “sins”: the largest oil reserves in the world over which the US has no grip, a sovereign foreign policy — marked by alliances with China, Russia, Iran, OPEC, and South–South networks — and a social project that utilizes natural resources for public purposes.
That is why, since 1998, when Hugo Chávez was elected president, the US has done everything to carry out regime change and install a puppet government. That ranged from economic sanctions, diplomatic warfare, coup attempts, influencing and manipulating elections, to secret operations.
Recently, General Laura Richardson, the former commander of the US Southern Command—which directs US military operations in the Caribbean and around Venezuela—openly admitted what Washington usually conceals behind words like “democracy” and “human rights.”
According to her, US policy in Latin America is in reality about controlling the enormous natural resources of the region—oil, lithium, gold, and rare earths—needed for Western military and technological power.
She pointed above all to Venezuela’s huge resource reserves as the real reason behind the decades-long attempts at regime change and the economic sanctions against the country.
“Peace Dove” as a Fig Leaf for War
Image is licensed under CC0
In the political theater, meanwhile, a face “acceptable” to the US emerges to replace the current President Maduro: the far-right opposition leader María Corina Machado.
With support from top figures in Washington and a Nobel Peace Prize in her pocket, she is being polished up internationally as a democratic alternative—despite her role in the 2002 coup attempt, open support for sanctions, and the violent street protests in 2014 and 2017.
Machado’s position has been clear for years: no negotiations, increase the pressure, toughen sanctions, and, if necessary, military intervention. Her Nobel Prize comes precisely at a moment when Washington is making war preparations against Venezuela. Could that be a coincidence?
In any case, it is downright cynical that in the West she is being deployed as a peace icon at the moment when Trump openly speaks of ground attacks that she approves and encourages.
Sharp Condemnation
Because of this military threat, the Venezuelan government has requested an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council. There, a call was made for de-escalation and respect for international law. The UN Assistant Secretary-General pointed out that member states must carry out their anti-drug operations in accordance with international law.
At home, President Nicolás Maduro is responding with national defense exercises, the plan ‘Independence 200′, while also emphasizing the call for dialogue. In Caracas and the state of Miranda, civilian militias, police, and the army are training together to protect strategic infrastructure such as electricity, water supply, and hospitals.
In Latin America, work is meanwhile underway on the formation of internationalist brigades to support Venezuela. According to João Pedro Stédile, leader of the Brazilian Movement of Landless Peasants (MST), social organizations from different countries of Latin America are coordinating their efforts to send activists who will make themselves available to help defend Venezuela against US aggression.
The inspiration comes from the international brigades of the Spanish Civil War, when volunteers from many countries came to defend the Spanish Republic.
Several presidents from the region have spoken out against Washington’s threat of war. Gustavo Petro, the president of Colombia, warned that any attack on Venezuela would be considered an aggression against all of Latin America and the Caribbean.
“Latin America, South America and the Caribbean must unite now to reject and respond to any aggression against Bolívar’s homeland and the Latin American and Caribbean territory, without rhetoric. Venezuela belongs to the Venezuelan people,” Petro said.
The Brazilian president Lula also spoke out forcefully against US aggression:
“The Venezuelan people are masters of their own future. And no president of another country needs to determine what Venezuela will be like.”
China condemned any threat or use of force in international relations. Beijing resolutely rejects any foreign interference in Venezuela’s internal affairs, under whatever pretext. It condemns any action that endangers peace and stability in the area.
In the US, a bipartisan group of senators has introduced a resolution to prevent President Trump from carrying out military actions against Venezuela without the approval of Congress. They want to restore the constitutional authority of Congress to declare war and stop the expansion of Trump’s military power in the Caribbean under the pretext of the “war on drugs.”
Also very remarkable is that Admiral Alvin Holsey, head of the US Southern Command, has submitted his resignation. According to The New York Times, Holsey opposes the massive troop buildup in the region and the bombing of five Venezuelan boats, attacks for which no evidence was provided that they were drug-carrying vessels.
Within the Pentagon, serious disagreements are said to have arisen between Holsey and Minister of War Pete Hegseth, and according to Reuters, the admiral stepped down just before a possible dismissal.
Oil, Ideology, and Lies
Anyone who thinks back to 2003 can easily see parallels. Back then, weapons of mass destruction had to justify the invasion of Iraq. The real goal was a geopolitical redrawing and control over oil.
Today, “narco-terrorism” and a “threat to the US” serve as a rhetorical pretense. The end goal remains the same: regime change and the dismantling of the Bolivarian Revolution, an important anti-colonial point of reference in Latin America.
History teaches that military interventions exact a heavy toll: thousands and thousands of deaths, countries laid waste, and a region in permanent instability. Just think of Iraq and Libya. The current war buildup off the coast of Venezuela is therefore extremely alarming and must be condemned in the sharpest possible terms.
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Marc Vandepitte is a member of the Network of Intellectuals and Artists in Defense of Humanity and was an observer during the presidential elections in Venezuela. He is a regular contributor to Global Research.
Featured image: Protest against U.S. intervention on Venezuela, in front of the White House, Washington DC, 2020. Credit
