Cocaine trafficking was a transparent excuse for attacking Venezuela. US President Donald Trump ordered the midnight raid and seizure of the country’s president because he sought a bigger prize, not because of any imminent threat of drugs flooding American cities.
He was confident he could get away with it. He saw no need to consult Congress, much less ask for a declaration of war, his advisers said. He was confident that a toadying GOP-led Congress would buy his argument that this was merely law enforcement arresting a wanted criminal. Moreover, he believes he has a blanket grant of immunity from the Supreme Court to do as he pleases and a disposition that sees himself as the ultimate ruler, not an elected president.
It was never about fentanyl, cocaine, or marijuana, nor was it about democracy. In fact, Trump never mentioned democracy in a victory speech that conservative columnist George F. Will called “meandering babble.” He spoke of bringing “peace, liberty, and justice” to Venezuela but not self-government.
Not about the drugs
The drugs were just an excuse. It’s really about the oil. Here’s the proof: Venezuela is not a major drug producer but a minor cocaine transit country, with 90% headed to Europe. The world’s largest cocaine producer is right next door in Colombia, with neighboring Peru and Bolivia running second and third. None have the huge oil reserves that Trump covets.
Venezuela does not produce or apparently traffic in fentanyl, the far more lethal illicit drug in the United States. The major producer is Mexico, and the chemical to produce it is supplied by China. So why send the Air Force, Navy, Army, Marines, Coast Guard, and squadrons of lawyers to Caracas in the middle of the night?
If Trump were serious about locking up a notorious drug lord, why arrest one who had only been indicted while setting free another who had already been convicted in a federal court? Trump inexplicably pardoned Juan Orlando Hernández, the former Honduran president who was serving a 45-year sentence for his role in shipping more than 400 tons of cocaine to the US.
All about the oil
It's about the world’s largest proven oil reserves sitting under Venezuela. It’s “our” oil, Trump declared. “We built Venezuela’s oil industry with American talent, drive, and skill, and the socialist regime stole it from us during those previous administrations. And they stole it through force. This constituted one of the largest thefts of American property in the history of our country,” he thundered as Nicolás Maduro was on his way to a New York jail cell.
And “we’re gonna run it.” He apparently has already negotiated deals with the big oil companies to revive Venezuela’s oil industry, which suffers from years of neglect, sanctions, corruption, and mismanagement. Trump’s mantra has been “Drill, baby, drill.” In 2024, he invited oil and gas executives to Mar-a-Lago and asked them to raise $1 billion for his campaign, according to several participants, and in return, he would grant their wish lists on taxes, regulations, and policy.
Without waiting for the full billion, he has begun the payback. It began within hours of his inauguration when he signed several executive orders declaring a national energy emergency intended to boost oil and gas exports, ease approval for fossil fuel production, and remove Biden-era measures the industry considered a “burden on the development of domestic energy resources.”
Anti-global warming
This is a president who considers global warming a hoax, solar panels “ugly as hell,” wind turbines as visual blights and killers of birds and whales, and – falsely – calls the world’s leading contributor to dangerous greenhouse gases “beautiful clean coal.” His administration withdrew leases for large offshore wind projects on the East Coast facing Blue states, adding Virginia to the list after it elected a Democrat to replace a Republican governor.
Some see this as retribution for his failure to block an offshore wind farm in sight of one of his golf courses in Scotland. He has dramatically cut back standards for automobile emissions and support for electric vehicles and approved leasing public lands for mineral exploitation, including 1.5 million acres of Alaska’s National Wildlife Refuge.
He has “effectively eliminated fuel standards for cars and trucks,” which is good for the oil companies and bad for consumers who will be paying more and longer for fossil fuels and inefficient vehicles, according to the Union of Concerned Scientists.
Oil and gas execs are enjoying a lucrative return on their investment in Trump. Provisions benefiting the fossil fuel industry in last summer’s “One Big, Beautiful Bill” will cost the public $80b. over the next decade, according to UCS.
Mike Sommers, president of the American Petroleum Institute, an industry lobbying group, told CNBC, “It includes almost all of our priorities.” Millions of acres of public lands and waters, including pristine wilderness, have been made available, and royalties to the federal government have been cut. The bill also removed tax breaks intended to boost solar and wind power, fossil fuel’s potential replacements.
Regime changes
Maduro’s vice president, Delcy Rodríguez, who was sworn in Monday as interim leader, said the attack “undoubtedly has Zionist undertones,” sparking fear in the country’s estimated 4,500 Jews. Community leaders ordered all Jewish institutions, including synagogues, to increase security.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio has been dubbed by The Washington Post the “Viceroy of Venezuela” for his role as chief architect of the Maduro ouster and the one Trump is apparently leaning on when he said the United States will “run” the country.
The United States has a long record of failure on regime change, intervention, wars of choice, and nation-building – something candidate Trump denounced but President Trump has embraced – in Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, and across Latin America. Where will Trump’s “Donroe Doctrine” take us next?
Trump, who seems to see himself as emperor of the Western Hemisphere, has already declared his desire to take over Greenland, with its large deposits of valuable rare earth elements as well as gold, uranium, and offshore oil and gas. He has mused about taking back the Panama Canal, of which the late Sen. S.I. Hayakawa once said, “It’s ours; we stole it fair and square.” Or Canada, with the largest reserves of potash, which the US has much less of, plus lots of uranium, oil, and gas.
Next on the hit list may be Rubio’s bête noire and the birthplace of his parents. “Cuba is a disaster,” he declared in the wake of the Venezuela attack, refusing to rule out future military strikes. After all, as Rubio’s department declared this week, “This is our hemisphere.”
The writer is a Washington-based journalist, consultant, lobbyist, and former legislative director at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.