Trump's 'Fake War on Drugs'
For the Byline Podcast, Adrian Goldberg talks to Professor Scott Lucas about the real reasons for Trump's military build-up next to Venezuela.
“Whatever it is, it ain’t no war on drugs,” observes Professor Scott Lucas, casting a sceptical eye over Donald Trump’s huge military build up off the coast of Venezuela, ostensibly designed to crack down on the illegal narcotics trade.
Trump has accused Veneuzuela’s President Nicolas Maduro of directing his country’s notorious drugs cartel Tren De Aragua to wage “irregular warfare” against the States and has even authorised covert operations in the Latin American country, but Lucas – Professor of US Politics at the Clinton Institute at University College, Dublin – says there’s scant evidence to support the claims.
In an interview with the Byline Podcast, he said: “Venezuela does not produce significant amounts of cocaine. That is Colombia, Peru, Bolivia. Venezuela does not produce significant amounts of fentanyl. The precursors for fentanyl, most of them come from China. If you are serious about going after fentanyl, you’re in the wrong place. If you’re talking about the production facilities for fentanyl, that would be Mexico. Venezuela is not at the centre of the drug cartels and the activity that Trump has put forward.”
The US is understood to currently have nine warships in close proximity to Venezuela, including the Gerald Ford aircraft carrier, which is equipped with B52 bombers. There’s back-up from F-35 jets, drones and thousands of Marines and sailors. If these forces are not being mustered to combat the supply of narcotics, what are they for?
Professor Lucas explains that the US President is a long-standing opponent of Maduro, whose repressive, authoritarian government secured a third term of office in 2024, amid reports of widespread election fraud. Trump, says Lucas, sees Maduro as a rival ‘strongman’ and regards his vocal opposition to US power in the region as an affront to his ego.
Another factor is likely to be the influence of Secretary of State Marco Rubio who, like many Americans of Cuban heritage, is ideologically opposed to socialists like Maduro. Leaks from the White House suggest that Rubio’s desire for regime change has swayed Trump.
Lucas explained: “Marco Rubio has long standing issues with the Cuban regime under the Castros – as many Cuban Americans do – and sees Venezuela as being part of that Castro revolution that has to be opposed by the Americans. Rubio, to get Trump’s support for this attempt to get rid of Maduro, put out the drug narrative.”
It won’t have harmed his case that Venezuela is oil-rich, making it a tempting target for one of Trump’s notorious ‘deals’.
“I don’t necessarily think we’re talking about shock and awe bombing of Venezuela” Prof Lucas cautioned. “I think we’re probably talking about an attempt to psychologically unsettle Maduro and his supporters – the idea being that you can maybe get the military to turn against him.”
The US has ramped up the pressure by placing a $50m bounty on Maduro’s head for information leading to his arrest, and has also bombed fishing boats in the Caribbean Sea which it claimed – without evidence – were involved in the narcotics trade.
Fourteen people are estimated to have died in the strikes which have been condemned by Republican senator Rand Paul. He said they were commissioned without Congressional authority and pointed out that the drugs trade was traditionally policed by law enforcement, not the military.
Prof Lucas said: “They are extrajudicial killings, because they were not carried out by going through the courts. Indeed, when two people survived the attacks and were picked up by the Americans, they were not taken to a US court, they were not tried for drug smuggling – which supposedly they were doing – because to do so would have required evidence. They were sent back to their home countries – not just Venezuela, but Colombia.
“ What’s the real game that’s going on here? Well, again, let’s emphasise - it’s not drugs.”
Listen to the whole interview here
Isn’t it always about resources like oil?
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