*I wrote this on September 20, but sometimes it takes a while to get through the editorial pipeline. Since it is a timely issue, I’m pre-publishing it. I’ll link to the site-published version when it’s out.

 

The United States is once again targeting Venezuela, in Washington’s long quest for regime changing the country.

In what the Trump administration transparently falsely claims is a war against so-called Venezuelan drug smugglers, Mr. End Wars has ordered the extrajudicial murders of 17 Venezuelans in the past few weeks and has moved US troops, aircraft and warships near Venezuelan waters, which some fear indicates a coming US war on Venezuela.

On September 19, the US military bombed three men on Trump’s accusation that the boat they were in was carrying drugs, “enroute to poison Americans,” Trump claimed (without providing any evidence, nor providing the location of the boat).

Four days prior, on September15, the US bombed three more men in international waters.

Trump, in his usual obnoxious hubris, justified the murders he ordered by claiming the men were “extraordinarily violent drug trafficking cartels and narcoterrorists” and that they “POSE A THREAT to U.S. National Security, Foreign Policy, and vital U.S. Interests.”

It’s long been clear that Trump and logic are oxymorons. If these really had been boats with drug traffickers, the logical thing to do would have been to arrest the traffickers…not murder three men, destroy the boat, and claim they were traffickers.

 

[ https://x.com/CMonteroOficial/status/1963020325802725384 ]

This was following the September 2 strike killing 11 people aboard a boat which Trump claims were members of “Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua”.

The strikes were made without Congress’ approval, in international waters. None of the men accused of being “narcoterrorists” were given the right to a trial, they were murdered on the orders of Trump, extrajudicially assassinated.

Further, on September 12, 18 armed US personnel from the US Navy destroyer USS Jason Dunham boarded and occupied for 8 hours the Venezuelan tuna vessel Carmen Rosa in Venezuelan waters, in yet another direct provocation of Venezuela.

In addition to the criminality of these acts, the whole pretext is simply phony. Aside from the fact that Washington has a very long track record of flimsy pretexts for attempted regime changes around the world, the irony about this particular accusation against Venezuela is that it is well known that the US has an equally long history of drug running.

 

[ https://x.com/Karenmendezl/status/1961500978118574508 ]

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has rejected Trump’s accusations, and said Venezuela has eliminated all major drug-trafficking operations on its soil, and vanquished prominent gangs, including the Tren de Aragua.

According to Pino Arlacchi, during his time as head of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the areas he travelled frequently to were Colombia, Bolivia, Peru and Brazil, “but never to Venezuela. There was simply no need.”

He maintains that, contrary to the Trump administration’s accusations (“geopolitically motivated slander”), the Venezuelan government’s “collaboration in the fight against drug trafficking was among the best in South America, rivaled only by Cuba’s impeccable record.”

According to Arlacchi, “Colombia produces over 70% of the world’s cocaine. Peru and Bolivia cover most of the remaining 30%,” further noting the routes for reaching the American and European markets are via the Pacific to Asia, through the eastern Caribbean towards Europe and overland through Central America towards the United States.

“Geographically, Venezuela is disadvantaged for all three main routes, as it borders the South Atlantic. Criminal logistics mean that Venezuela plays only a marginal role in the grand theater of international narcotrafficking.”

 

[ https://x.com/JhonnyNoticias/status/1967582491172032961 ]

 

US War buildup around Venezuela

Ambassador Chas Freeman in a recent interview said the current Trump administration’s actions are “part of a longstanding 21st century effort to overthrow the government of Venezuela.”

“Very clearly the Trump administration, and I think Marco Rubio in particular, are trying very hard to engineer regime change in Caracas.”

In August, the US announced a $50 million reward for information leading to the arrest of Maduro (keeping in mind the US earlier this year removed the much smaller $10 million bounty on known al-Qaeda/ISIS terrorist Abu Mohammed al-Joolani, aka Ahmed al-Sharaa, the so-called “president” of Syria with the blood of countless civilians on his hands).

Under the fighting drug trafficking pretext, the Trump administration with its newly dubbed Department of War has moved five (of 10 planned) U.S. F-35 aircraft to Puerto Rico, following the moving of at least eight Navy vessels and one nuclear-powered submarine and an estimated 4,000 troops to the region.

In response, Venezuelan masses continue to mobilize against the US threats, with a 4.5 million-person-strong people’s militia. This is in addition to the 95,000 to 150,000 active members of the Venezuelan army.

The US has long wanted to overthrow Venezuela leaders

The decades long US meddling in Venezuela has never been about whatever current US puppet president states, not about human rights, not about drugs. It has always been about subjugating Venezuela and controlling its resources, including especially its massive crude oil reserves.

In his first term, in 2019, Trump not only backed the wildly unpopular grinning puppet Juan Guaido as “interim president” in President Maduro’s Venezuela, but the Trump administration carried out a series of sabotages in the country in its attempt to sway popular opinion towards Guaido.

It failed spectacularly. I was in Venezuela at the time and saw the outcome of what the Venezuela government called US sabotage on its electrical grid, causing a country-wide power outage for six days. Subsequent physical attacks on the electrical grid, including arson, caused more outages.

US media claimed Venezuela was in a state of chaos, that there was no food available, and that President Nicolas Maduro had no popular support base.

As I wrote back then, I arrived three days into the outage, and aside from darkened buildings, emptier streets than usual, and in following days long lines at water dispensaries and ATMs, I saw no instability. Instead, I saw and learned of Venezuelans working together to get through the effects of the power outage, and saw ample food in supermarkets and street markets I visited, including in the poorest barrios.

I also saw massive rallies of support for Maduro and against US interference in Venezuela. Many of those participating were from Caracas’ poorest communities, Afro-descendant Venezuelans that are not given a voice by corporate media but who articulated to me very clearly their understanding of the US interests in destabilizing Venezuela.

Ambassador Chas Freeman calls the US objectives in Venezuela a misreading of Venezuelan politics.

“The fact is that there is a 4.5 million man armed militia in Venezuela which has been mobilized against a possible invasion or a coup attempt. You don’t have a 4.5 million man militia armed if you’re not confident of your position in power and your authority.”

This US latest foolishly-concocted, criminal, attempt to destabilize the country is likely to resoundingly fail. But like previous illegal interventions in Venezuela, the US will once more, without remorse, cause the deaths of Venezuelan civilians. It already has.

 

Related:

–US ‘preparing options’ for strikes inside Venezuela

–Interview with former Ambassador and Diplomat Chas Freeman (Odysee) (Rumble)

–My Venezuela playllist (2019)

-(2019) US is manufacturing a crisis in Venezuela so that there is chaos and ‘needed’ intervention

-(2019) March 16 Demonstration of Solidarity With Venezuelan Government and Against Imperialism

-(2019) President Maduro: “The Venezuelan People Do Not Want Violence or Foreign Military Intervention”

-(2019) Venezuelans Calmly Helped One Another During Manufactured Electricity Crisis

–Venezuela isn’t Syria… but America’s war tactics are the same