People watch the USS Jason Dunham in 2019. Photo: Drew Angerer/Getty Images/file photo.
By Roger D. Harris and Joe Emersberger – Sep 5, 2025
President Donald Trump euphorically concluded his White House press conference on September 2 with breaking news: the US military had just blown up a small motor vessel in the middle of the Caribbean Sea. He alleged that the skiff came from Venezuela and was loaded with illicit drugs headed to the US.
On social media, he further embellished his story by saying that the crew were members of the Tren de Aragua cartel, which Trump claims is controlled by Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. Trump alleges that this cartel is “responsible for mass murder, drug trafficking, sex trafficking, and acts of violence across the US.”
Evidence blown out of the water
There was no attempt to stop and search the boat in international waters, before murdering the crew. This gruesome practice arrogates to the US state the extrajudicial power to kill anyone with whom it unilaterally declares itself to be at “war.”
The eleven victims are just a drop in the imperial blood bucket compared to the US-sponsored genocide in Gaza. But the homicidal “victory” was used by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio to crow about the “full power of America, the full might of the United States.”
Maduro responded that no one believes Trump’s and Rubio’s lies: “they come for Venezuelan oil and gas, they want them for free.”
The day before the incident, Maduro presciently warned that the US could create a false positive to justify the US military deployment. Claims have circulated that the incident may have been faked by AI. If true, that’s not much of a relief. It simply means Trump’s military escalation against Venezuela has begun at a lower level than he claims.
Maduro alluded to the fabricated Gulf of Tonkin incident and the explosion of the Maine, which precipitated the 1964 Vietnam and 1898 Spanish-American wars respectively. Maduro also mentioned the WMD hoax that was used to justify the 2003 US invasion of Iraq.
Maduro might also have noted that President Bill Clinton bombed Sudan, diverting attention from his Monica Lewinsky sex scandal. Trump is now facing similar difficulties due to his close friendship with the deceased pedophile Jeffrey Epstein
A decapitation strike attempt on Venezuela foretold
All the elements, especially US impunity, are in place to eventually attempt a decapitation strike eliminating the South American nation’s leadership.
Trump ominously boasted at his press conference “there is more where that came from” for Venezuela. Just four days earlier, Washington’s “historic partner” Israel had assassinated the Yemeni prime minister and his civilian cabinet. Arguably, the word “partner” understates the intimate level of integration between the two. The Israelis have been perpetrating a live-streamed genocide in Gaza for over 700 days while receiving daily airlifts of military supplies under both Biden and Trump.
Decapitation of an enemy’s leadership has become a tactic for the “partners.” Aside from Yemen, the Israelis launched a devastating decapitation strike on Hezbollah in Lebanon along with a similarly brazen one of top Iranian leaders during its twelve-day war with Tehran. In 2020, Trump murdered Iranian General Qassem Soleimani with a drone.
Trump signed an executive order designating drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations the day he returned to the presidency. US military were deployed to the Caribbean near Venezuela under the ruse of drug interdiction. Shortly afterwards, The New York Times reported a leaked “secret order” authorizing the use of the US military to intervene in other countries against drug cartels.
Also in August, the reward on the head of Maduro was doubled to $50 million with lesser rewards for other top officials. US sanctions now extend to the heads of the state oil and transportation companies, supreme court justices, electoral councilors, national assembly politicians, various military and security heads, and so forth; in short, a leadership hit list.
Trump doesn’t actually care about the US’s illegal drug problem
The US is indeed flooded with drugs, but Trump’s concern is insincere. Otherwise he would have mobilized against trafficking within the US and close allies like Ecuador. Instead Trump diverts public attention by scapegoating Venezuela, a country that contributes to the problem negligibly.
Illicit drug sales in the US are estimated at $200–$750 billion, including new synthetics. Remarkably, the only other domestic commodity that comes close in volume is legal pharmaceuticals at $600 billion, followed by oil and gas at $400 billion. Indeed, the US is the largest consumer of illegal drugs and a major supplier of weapons and drug precursor chemicals for the cartels. As the world’s leading narcotics money launderer, prominent US banks implicated include HSBC Bank USA, Wachovia, Wells Fargo, and Bank of America.
We constantly hear about Latin American drug kingpins, but who distributes the dope when it crosses the border is left unanswered. Research by Mexican journalist Jorge Esquivel demonstrates that no US administration has ever seriously investigated domestic drug trafficking networks. Venezuelan international analyst Sergio Gelfenstein asserts Washington has “no interest whatsoever in combating the drug trade”; it is just too big and profitable.
Besides, drug usage serves to pacify youth, African Americans, and other potentially dissident demographics. Journalist Gary Webb exposed how drug trafficking on the streets of Los Angeles in the 1980s helped fund the CIA-backed Contras in Nicaragua. And opium production was virtually eradicated in Afghanistan before the US invasion of 2001, only to explode again under direct US military occupation.
Fake threat of Venezuelan drug trafficking
“What the US really seeks is regime change and regional control, thinly veiled behind drug war rhetoric,” according to The Cradle.
The authoritative 2025 UN World Drug Report featured minimal mention of Venezuela, emphasizing that it plays a marginal role in global drug trafficking. The report confirms that Venezuela is a territory largely free of drug cultivation and processing, as well as any significant international cartel presence. Nor does the report mention the fictitious “Cartel of the Suns,” which the US claims Maduro heads.
Despite Tren de Aragua’s designation by the US as a terrorist organization, the intelligence community itself refutes that it is controlled by Maduro or is even a highly functioning international narcotics cartel.
The guard rails are down for imperialist aggression
Democrats may carp about the optics of Trump’s actions, but they have been bipartisan partners in opposition to the Bolivarian Revolution’s attempt to build socialism in the 21st century ever since Hugo Chávez was first elected Venezuela’s president in 1998. Note, every US Senator voted to confirm Marco Rubio as Trump’s Secretary of State.
The so-called “international community” and its institutions such as the United Nations have been powerless to stop the US/zionist war on Palestine let alone one in Uncle Sam’s “backyard.” Welcome to the post-Gaza genocide world.
And let’s not forget the perfidy of big “human rights” NGOs like Amnesty International, which absurdly and hysterically alleges that the Venezuelan government’s “cruelty knows no bounds,” nicely timed to justify US imperialism.
The US aggression on Venezuela is clearly escalating from funding of opposition elements, lawfare, and sanctions, plus occasional coup attempts and sabotage. Now direct military confrontation is possible, which could involve an attempt to assassinate the entire Bolivarian leadership.
The reported 4,500 US troops recently deployed to the Caribbean could never take Venezuela even if they were multiplied manyfold. But recent history suggests that the US often avoids a full US troop-heavy occupation. In Haiti, Libya, and Syria, the US instead opted for chaos rather than permitting insubordinate states to survive.
Resistance by Venezuela has stiffened to meet the challenge. Civilian-military unity has remained strong. This video clip shows artisanal fishing boats accompanying one of the mobilized Venezuelan naval ships. Shortly before the US destroyed the alleged “drug boat,” President Maduro had declared a “republic in arms.” And millions of civilian reservists have enlisted in the Bolivarian National Militia, a branch of the Venezuelan armed forces, while regular troops had been dispatched to the Colombia border.
Many regional leaders along with the regional ALBA organization have condemned the US military buildup. Further afield, Russia, Iran, and China all stated their support of Venezuela. And international grassroots support for Venezuela’s sovereignty has been overwhelmingly positive, condemning Yankee warfare.
For humanity, Venezuela’s Bolivarian Revolution represents hope; for the US imperial project, which seeks to crush any alternative to its order, it is a threat. To force regime change in Caracas, Washington may attempt to eliminate the current leadership or pursue another tactic. The method matters less than the goal – either installing a compliant vassal or, failing that, leaving the country in chaos. The pressure will therefore continue, and likely intensify.
RDH/JE/OT
Roger D. Harris
Roger D. Harris lives in California and is with the anti-imperialist human rights organization Task Force on the Americas, the Venezuela Solidarity Network, the US Peace Council, and the Marxist Forum. He writes regularly on Latin American and the Caribbean with a special emphasis on Venezuela, Cuba, and Nicaragua.
Joe Emersberger
Joe Emersberger is an engineer, writer, and activist based in Canada. His writing, focused on the Western media’s coverage of the Americas, can be found on FAIR.org, CounterPunch.org, TheCanary.co, Telesur English, and ZComm.org.
