The Trump administration has recently stepped up America’s ‘War on Drugs,’ a battle that commenced under President Nixon on 17 June 1971, but despite which illicit drugs still remain the nation’s “public enemy number one.” On his very first day in office, Trump issued Executive Order 14157 “Designating Cartels and Other Organizations as Foreign Terrorist Organizations and Specially Designated Global Terrorists.” Following this Presidential order, the US is now engaging in “a non-international armed conflict” with the cartels. In a reworking of the Monroe Doctrine of 1823, the US has focused attention on its own ‘backyard’ and targeted what it considers to be a hostile state. Trump’s announcement on 2 September 2025 has taken the US military to the high seas near Venezuela and enabled lethal attacks on vessels alleged to be carrying “narcoterrorists” , supposedly laden with cocaine, fentanyl, and other prohibited substances for consumption within America. In this context, it must be noted that the US has neither signed nor ratified the 1982 United Nations Convention of the Law of the Sea.
Under President Nicolás Maduro, the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela has become a thorn in Trump’s side. Some observers are thus interpreting the attacks off Venezuela’s Caribbean coast as part of an American desire for political hegemony in the region and as a possible means of bringing about regime change in the region. Although Venezuela has had some involvement in drug trafficking, it is by no means a main producer or exporter of drugs destined for the US. Mexican cartels and the Pacific coast account for a much larger proportion of the drug trade. But it isn’t just drugs that the US President is concerned about. According to Trump, Venezuela deliberately emptied out its prisons, “mental institutions”, and “lunatic asylums”, from where people then flooded into America through ex-President Biden’s “open borders.” Venezuela is also alleged to be harbouring members of the Tren de Aragua (Train of Aragua) cartel, a “transnational criminal organisation” that started out as a prison gang before expanding into sex-trafficking, extortion, kidnapping, contract killing, and other criminal activities inimical to America’s well-being.
Normally, the US Coastguard would be expected to intercept any suspected drug boats attempting to enter America. The Pentagon has, however, taken matters further and despatched guided missile destroyers, a nuclear-powered submarine, the Iwo Jima amphibious group, P-8 intelligence planes, B-52 bombers, F-35 fighter jets, and an additional 4,500 troops to the region. Six Special Operations strikes on “drug boats” have killed 27 people, including two fishermen from Trinidad and Tobago, in what some legal experts, as well as the Venezuelan ambassador to the UN, consider to be “extrajudicial executions” of civilians on the high seas. Despite these concerns, neighbouring Trinidad and Tobago’s Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar has proved supportive of the attacks on drug traffickers. Following on from the maritime actions, President Trump has also authorised the CIA, as of 15 October, to conduct covert land operations inside Venezuelan territory, having “got the sea very well under control.” Responding to the attacks, President Maduro has meanwhile posted soldiers to the nation’s borders, mobilised civilian militias, and ordered military exercises, including ‘Independence 200.’
Nicolás Maduro has served as President of Venezuela since 2013. When he was re-elected to a second term in 2018, Trump recognised opposition leader Juan Guaidó as the legitimate president in place of Maduro, leading to the breaking off of diplomatic relations between Venezuela and the US, which have yet to be restored. In 2020, the US Department of Justice deemed Maduro to be involved in “narco-terrorism” and drug trafficking. Despite all the unfavourable attention, Maduro was sworn in for a third term in January 2025, having claimed victory in a contested election in July 2024. The US has now offered a bounty of $50 million, in August this year, for the arrest on Maduro.
Under Maduro’s rule Venezuela, a country with the world’s largest oil reserves and once the wealthiest nation in Latin America, has lived through an economic crisis. The ‘failed petrostate’ has experienced hyperinflation, a scarcity of basic goods (food, drinking water, medicines), the collapse of public utilities, high unemployment, and growing poverty, while the state-owned oil infrastructure is in disrepair from lack of investment, oil production has fallen, and low oil prices have cut into export earnings. International sanctions have only added to the nation’s woes. Widespread corruption, manipulated elections, the brutal suppression of political dissent, and mass emigration from the country have contributed to Venezuela’s image as a ‘pariah state.’ Recent GDP growth, and annual inflation that has stabilised at around 50%, may provide some hope for the future, but the debt-ridden country has some way to go before its citizens can experience an improvement in their living conditions.
This year, the Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to Maria Corina Machado, a long-standing critic of Maduro, “for her tireless work promoting democratic rights for the people of Venezuela and for her struggle to achieve a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy”. The citation also notes that: “Ahead of the election of 2024, Ms Machado was the opposition’s presidential candidate, but the regime blocked her candidacy.” In an X post, Venezuela’s ‘Iron Lady’ has since dedicated her Prize to “the suffering people of Venezuela and to President Trump for his decisive support of our cause”-the latter a consolation prize for her fellow nominee. Machado’s views are mostly in keeping with Trumpian ideology and her award has irked Maduro to the extent that he is reported to be closing down Venezuela’s embassy in Oslo.
Apparently concerned by the role of the US military in combating “narcoterrorism” in the south-eastern Caribbean, Admiral Alvin Holsey, one of a handful of Black four-star officers, and commander of the US Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) since November 2024, has taken early retirement, from 12 December onward, after 37 years of “distinguished service.” At the time he announced his intention to leave on X on 16 October, Holsey was in charge of all US military forces in South and Central America and the Caribbean. His command would normally have lasted three years. The exact reason for Holsey’s premature departure remains unclear.
The US has militarised the ‘War on Drugs’ and has resorted to hard power in an attempt to subdue and possibly remove Maduro. Recognising the superiority of American firepower, Maduro has said he is “willing to talk, to engage in dialogue”, while demanding “respect.” Either way, the political and economic situation within Venezuela is less than ideal. In these circumstances, the Maduro regime may feel justifiably threatened by the US. What happens next depends, at least in part, on how much civilian support Maduro can command, at a time he appears to have the loyal support of his armed forces.
Ashis Banerjee