Yesterday we pointed out that US President for Life hopeful Donald Trump‘s excursion into Venezuelan drug trafficking comes at a time when Venezuela has been experiencing political and social unrest against President for Life Nicolas Maduro‘s regime. Maduro is the successor of Venezuelan President for Life Hugo Chavez and his “Bolivaran Revolution.”
I pointed out
That Maduro has engaged in drug trafficking is no revelation. The Narcosobrinos Affair was the arrest of Efraín Antonio Campo Flores and Francisco Flores de Freitas, two of Maduro’s nephews, in Port au Prince Haiti by the US DEA on 10 November 2015. They were tried and convicted of attempting to smuggle 800 kg of cocaine into the US. The nephews were exchanged in 2022 for five Venezuelan-American directors of the oil refinery corporation CITGO held in Venezuelan prisons.
How many of us knew about the arrest of Maduro’s nephews? It certainly didn’t get much press. I found this bit of information while doing research for yesterday’s blog and barely remembered it.
Going after drug runners is not a bad thing. If they are running drugs for Maduro and his generals or revolutionaries opposed to the regime the FARC is still getting rich.
The point is how Trump is going about this. He keeps garnering press attention by zapping drug boats with missiles and handing the videos to reporters. It’s very exciting and gets great ratings. It is also completely unnecessary. Interdicting drug runners can be accomplished with Coast Guard boats, the crews can be arrested and the drugs confiscated. Extrajudicial executions are illegal; drug smuggling is not a capital offense.
The Marine Expeditionary Unit in the region consists of around 2K combat marines. That’s not enough to invade Venezuela which has 109K troops and 220K paramilitary troops (Wikipedia). It sure gets ratings though. Film of troop ships and their helicopters make for great video bites during a news broadcast.
Great ratings – and getting this grandiose show on the air, is the point. The Venezuelans see it and Maduro can use it. The press, wittingly or unwittingly, is complicit in creating this illusion. It’s a numbers game played within a population. Some opposition forces may come out of hiding thinking the US will back their play, only to be crushed by Maduro’s troops. Some people opposed to Maduro’s rule will actually join him if they feel threatened by the United States.
As the Trump administration moves in to attack Venezuelan boats along with the usual bravado and political posturing; Maduro is now able to distract the populace from his own corrupt and despotic rule. Civilians are forgetting about Maduro and are focusing their attention on the US military. Diversion of anger to a perceived external threat has saved dictatorships from civil unrest in the past. It’s so effective that certain nations experiencing unrest (NCRI) will attempt to create external friction (BBC) to re-direct the anger, and fear, of their populace.
The only possible result of Trump’s theatrics is the continuation and entrenchment of Maduro’s regime. It comes as a charade designed to make Trump seem like a great force against evil drug runners. In the meantime Trump is not doing much about the two decade long Cartel War in Mexico, nor are people in the US inclined to think about Jeffrey Epstein and the files.
The best way to stop the Venezuelan drug trade is to remove Maduro. The easiest way to make that happen is to get your man gods to do it; they put him, and Trump, where they are in the first place.