A Funny Thing Happened to US Warships on Their Way to The Caribbean: The Invasion That Wasn’t

By Maria Páez Victor – Aug 28, 2025

The USA has deployed two warships, an armed nuclear submarine and 4,500 troops to the Caribbean Sea. According to Marco Rubio, Secretary of State, their supposed mission is to combat drug trafficking and a drug cartel called “Cartel de los Soles” [Cartel of the Sun’s]. Rubio claims that it is led by President Maduro, and he insists that it is intent on “flooding” the US with narcotics. He stated that this cartel is one of the largest criminal organizations that exists in the hemisphere.

Military experts, however, point out that two warships and a nuclear submarine is overkill and ineffective to combat smugglers’ boats, for which helicopters and coast-guard-type ships would be more effective. Furthermore, as a potential invasion, 4,500 troops is woefully inadequate for invading a country the size of Venezuela. The US needed 26,000 troops to invade Panama, 110,000 to invade Afghanistan, and 130,000 to invade Iraq, all with very mixed results.

No drugs in Venezuela
Furthermore, drugs and this “cartel” are poorly concocted excuses to attack Venezuela. Washington has no evidence whatsoever of the existence of this criminal organization. Pino Arlacchi, Under-secretary General of the UN and Executive Director of the UN program against drugs UNODC, has categorically stated that: “the UN 2025 report dismantles piece by piece the geopolitical fabrication built about the ‘Cartel of the Suns,’ an entity as legendary as the Loch Ness Monster (1).”

In regards to Venezuela being a drug nation, that is also pure fantasy. The 2025 UN drug report states that the Venezuelan government’s fight against drugs has been exemplary, that 30 previous annual reports do not even mention Venezuelan drug trafficking because it does not exist, that most of the drugs that go north do so through the Pacific Ocean not the Caribbean Sea, and that only 5% of Colombian drugs transit through Venezuela. Arlacchi recently mentions that 57% of the banana containers leaving Ecuador and arriving in Europe are loaded with cocaine. Colombia produces more than 70% of the world’s cocaine; meanwhile, in Venezuela, there is no coca growing.

Even a 2020 report made by critics of the Venezuelan government, Geoff Ramsey and David Smilde from the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA), concluded that the country “is not a primary transit country for US-bound cocaine” and that the bulk of drug shipments reach US territory via Washington-allied countries in Central America.

The hypocrisy of Washington is appalling. The US imports, sells, buys, and consumes the most cocaine in the world. Its cities and towns are filled with addicts, and its drug-induced crime is at unbelievable levels. The US has the highest rate of drug overdose deaths in the world. Why not go after the US drug cartels and distributors?

There is no mistake: the warships are intended to threaten the Venezuelan government and create chaos and psychological terror in the population.

Mind games
Most people have not heard of this military deployment, unless they live in Miami, because the mainstream media has largely ignored it. Not so with social media, which has exploded with the news and prognostications of an imminent invasion of Venezuela, the seizure of its president (on whom the US has set a bounty on his head of $50 million!), and the fall of its government by military force. The Miami based ultra-right extremists have had a field day, building up psychological terror and touting what they wish but cannot assure.

World attention, however, has had other fish to fry: the Russia/Ukraine conflict, the genocide in Gaza, Trump’s tariff attacks on the world economy, and inside the USA, the elusive Epstein File, the military takeover of Washington DC, the attempts to rig electoral districts, and the continuing jailing and deporting of immigrants. Trump has quite an agenda already. To add Venezuela to it, he would have to kiss his desired Nobel Peace Prize goodbye if he attacked a Latin American country.

And that is exactly what Marco Rubio, with his sick, ruthless obsession against Cuba and Venezuela wants: to bring Venezuela to the top of Trump’s agenda. He thinks this would be the “making” of him, but more likely, which he does not realize, it will be his utter downfall.

Impacts of the military threat
It seems that in the US, nobody in the top political or military echelons plays chess. There does not seem to be any consideration when they make a move of what their opponent will do. In Venezuela, there were several responses to this military threat:

Taking the threat seriously; Venezuela quickly deployed its comprehensive defense shield, which is formidable. The country has the most powerful armed forces in Latin America, the only one capable of high-intensity conflict. Its military technology is cutting edge, Russian built, with a sophisticated, potent, air defense system having short, medium, and long-range capacity. The Venezuelan armed forces, therefore, took up defensive positions immediately for all the world to see.
There are 4.5 million people in the militias in Venezuela, which form part of the armed forces. These civilians have been trained, prepared, and armed. Last weekend, the government opened registration for anyone who wished to join the militias in defending their homeland, and the response of many thousands throughout the nation was overwhelming. The people, therefore, are armed, and are in close cooperation with its military.
There is a political unity never seen before. Venezuelans of every stripe are incensed at the US affront. In a country where the opposition rarely, if at all, praises the government, its diverse members have rallied around the government and unified in defense of the nation. President Maduro’s political situation has been strengthened in an extraordinary manner.

White House Does Not Rule Out Launching Military Strike Against Venezuela

International support for Venezuela
Perhaps because Trump has fired his top military intelligence officer, the US has misread the Latin American geopolitical situation badly: it can no longer claim Latin America as its back yard. Venezuela is not confronting this threat alone.

Washington does not appear to realize that times have changed. It is truly a multipolar world; the US cannot lord it over Latin America as it used to. This is a different world from the time when the US could berate, intimidate, bribe, harass, carry out assassinations, depose governments, and invade Latin American countries as it did before.

Russia and China, both with substantial investments in Venezuela, have told Washington quite clearly to stop threatening Venezuela, saying that the US does not “own” the Caribbean. Mexico, Cuba, Honduras, Bolivia, Nicaragua, Belarus, Iran, Brazil, and Turkey are some of the nations that have stated their support for Venezuela. Three significant supports are worth mentioning:

The Mexican president Claudia Sheinbaum has categorically denounced the illegality of the US military presence and threat, saying: “We are never going to support the intervention by a foreign government in a sovereign country.”
The BRIC nations, the new geopolitical organization that has more than half the world in its axis, has backed Venezuela.
The Colombian president Gustavo Petro has announced that, “if Venezuela is attacked, the armed forces of Colombia will unite with the Venezuelan army to fight the invaders.” This unity of armies has not happened since the time of Simón Bolívar in the 19th Century, when the Venezuelan and Colombian armies were one, and together they liberated the continent of the Spanish empire. These were historic and profound words of President Petro. The combined armies would be formidable indeed against a US invasion.

Throughout years of continuous attacks and sanctions, Venezuela has carried out an exemplary diplomatic effort that has paid off. The majority of UN members have regularly supported Venezuela, and stronger links to China, Russia, Cuba, and Iran—other sanctioned nations—have also been a source of support and solidarity.

Venezuelans will no doubt be bolstering their hopes remembering the triumphs of Cuba at the Bay of Pigs and the Afghani and Vietnamese peasantry who withstood attacks, saving their respective countries. But wars exact great costs and loss of life, so it is best to avoid them altogether. Maybe one was averted in these days because Venezuela has followed the saying of the Roman, Vegetius: “Si vis pacem, para bellum” (If you want peace, prepare for war). Venezuela was and is prepared to face the invaders.

Venezuela has never attacked or threatened any other nation. It has never gone to war against any neighbour. It has always striven for peace for its land and people. President Maduro in his call for national unity said: “It is time for courage, for uniting efforts, and for putting aside minor differences, to speak with one voice, the voice of the homeland.” Venezuelans have heeded his words.

Notes