On Saturday, the Reuters news agency published an exclusive report stating that the United States is “prepared to launch a new phase of operations related to Venezuela in the coming days.” The report cited four US officials who spoke on condition of anonymity. Two of the officials said the covert operations would likely be the first step in this “new action” against Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
This was not at all shocking news given that more than a month ago, the president of the United States, Donald Trump, himself announced that he had authorized the CIA to carry out covert operations in Venezuela, a rather unique approach since actions that are supposed to be, shall we say, secret are not normally broadcast.
Regardless, it is no secret that the United States has been overseeing a massive military buildup in the region with around 15,000 US troops currently stationed there under the pretext of fighting “narcoterrorism.” Since early September, Trump has also presided over senseless extrajudicial executions in the Caribbean Sea, repeatedly ordering the bombing of what he claims are drug trafficking ships.
Aside from violating both international and US law, the attacks have produced little to show beyond terrorizing local fishermen.
To be sure, the United States has never faced a “war on drugs” it didn't like, given the convenient opportunities the entire drug war narrative provides to wreak havoc around the world, militarize the Western Hemisphere, criminalize poor Americans, and all sorts of other good things.
Never mind that American financial institutions have been profiting from international drug trafficking for decades, or that “The CIA's drug connection is as old as the agency,” as an article on the New York Times website puts it.
It should be no surprise at this point that the president who campaigned to keep the United States out of wars and then promptly bombed Iran has now found another conflict in which to embroil the country. And as is usual in US imperial belligerence, the basis for the aggression against Venezuela does not hold up.
For example, the Trump administration has gone out of its way to blame Maduro for the fentanyl crisis in the United States. But there is a small problem: Venezuela does not even produce the synthetic opioid in question.
As NBC News and other non-radical outlets have noted, Venezuelan drug cartels are focused on exporting cocaine to Europe, not fentanyl to the United States.
However, on November 13, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth (sorry, US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, per administrative name change) took our people.”
This is the same administration, of course, that had just threatened to starve impoverished Americans by withholding essential food assistance, suggesting that the well-being of “our people” is not really of utmost concern.
Consider also the fact that Trump slashed federal funding for gun violence prevention programs in a country where mass shootings have become a way of life. Obviously, the massacres in primary schools are “killing our people” in a way that has nothing to do with Venezuela.
But it's much more fun to blame Maduro for everything, right?
Poverty itself is one of the leading causes of death in the United States, as is the domestic pharmaceutical industry (speaking of opioids). However, none of these full-blown crises have merited a remotely enthusiastic response from the brave defenders of the Homeland.
Like his predecessor Hugo Chávez, Maduro has long been a thorn in the side of the US empire; hence the current campaign to discredit him as a “narcoterrorist” and thus set the stage for a regime change. It also happens to be the favorite target of Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who is considered the main architect of Washington's war plans in Venezuela. Rubio, potentially considering a presidential run in three years, is looking to curry favor with his Florida electorate, which includes fanatically right-wing members of the Venezuelan and Cuban diasporas.
According to Reuters reporting on the impending “Venezuela-related operations,” two of the U.S. officials consulted told the news agency that “options under consideration included attempting to overthrow Maduro.” If the plans succeed, Rubio would join the long list of American politicians who have spread deadly havoc abroad for domestic political gain.
Meanwhile, The Washington Post reported Saturday that the White House had “proposed an idea to have U.S. military planes drop leaflets over Caracas in a psychological operation” to pressure Maduro.
It sounds like a page – or a pamphlet – from the old Israeli military manual.
And as the Trump administration moves forward with its not-so-covert plans for Venezuela, that hemispheric recklessness will protect neither U.S. territory nor anyone else's.
The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Al Jazeera.
