By Laurence F. Sanford

Venezuela is a narco state. Over 15% of the world’s supply of opium is funneled through the country.

“Operation Money Badger” was initiated in 2013 by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) to record and build drug-trafficking cases against Venezuela’s leadership, including President Maduro. Colombian drug traffickers were utilizing Venezuela’s tightly controlled foreign currency system to launder drug money from sales in the U.S.

In March 2020, the U.S. government indicted President Nicholas Maduro for conspiring “to flood the United States with cocaine” and use it as a “weapon against America.” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo offered a $15 million reward for information leading to the arrest of Maduro. Other U.S. officials accused Maduro of harboring drug traffickers, guerrillas from Columbia, and the terrorist group Hezbollah. Russia, China, Iran, and assorted Islamic terrorist groups support the Venezuelan government.

U.S. Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley in 2018 called for Maduro to step down from ruling the narco state. The Trump administration instituted wide-ranging sanctions and also called on the Organization of American States (OAS) to suspend Venezuela for its lack of election transparency, totalitarian rule, and migration of millions of Venezuelans to other countries, including the U.S. Millions of Venezuelans are suffering from food and medical shortages. Haley compared Venezuela to the failed states of Cuba and Nicaragua.

Yet Maduro is now thriving in Venezuela. The Biden administration lifted oil sanctions, arranged a prisoner swap, and eased prosecutions of Maduro’s inner circle. Columbia has a new leftist president, Gustavo Petro, a former urban guerrilla, who has promised to transform Colombia’s economic system. He and Maduro have a cordial relationship.

Maduro is a Marxist thug. His totalitarian socialist policies of government control resulted in the following:

• Poverty despite having the world’s largest oil reserves.
• Freedom of assembly and speech are stifled due to police technologies aided, abetted, and supported by Cuba, China, and Russia.
• The social fabric is sundered with mass incarceration and migrations.

And like other Marxist thugs who do not honor existing treaties and territorial claims, such as Putin in Ukraine, Xi in the South China Seas/Taiwan, and Kim in North Korea, Maduro is claiming two-thirds of neighboring Guyana belongs to Venezuela. The territorial dispute was ongoing for most of the 1800s but was settled with an 1899 treaty. Venezuela recently reopened the dispute with the discovery of massive oil deposits off the Guyana coast. A phony referendum in Venezuela claimed the disputed area of Essequibo, which represents two-thirds of Guyana. Maduro gave an ultimatum of three months for oil companies (American) to stop drilling in the disputed waters.

Now, Venezuela is threatening military action. Troops, tanks, and missile-equipped missile patrol boats are massing near the Guyana border. Maduro has ordered state-owned oil companies to drill for oil in the waters off Guyana. ExxonMobil plans to expand operations in the same waters that Venezuela claims, but by treaty are located in Guyana territory. Previous attempts by ExxonMobil to drill in the disputed waters failed because of Venezuelan military actions. Now, the ExxonMobil president said the oil concessions were granted by the Guyana government and that it is committed to its operations.

The British have sent a warship to the Guyana coast, and the U.S. has promised to supply modern military equipment. It announced the commencement of joint military drills. Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva voiced concerns over the border dispute and is reinforcing military presence in the border area.

Summary

America’s dominance of the world is over. Rising threats from China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, and Islamic terror groups have diffused power throughout the world. Technologies allow minor league players to assert world threats. Internet viruses, biological viruses, supply chain disruptions, food availability, and political/religious strife can result in fundamentally transforming the world order.

The Monroe Doctrine, in which the U.S. calls the shots in the Western Hemisphere, is long gone. To protect America, our leaders need to tend to our own garden and make America the bastion or Shining City on the Hill of freedom and prosperity. Instead of the DEA running amok in Latin America, the DEA should be enforcing drug laws within the U.S. No one is forcing Americans to buy and ingest cocaine or fentanyl.

Sanctions do not work. Sanctions generate anti-American sentiment throughout the world. One of the reasons for BRICS’s growing influence is that it offers an alternative to U.S. sanctions.

“Speak softly and carry a big stick” was the diplomacy of President Teddy Roosevelt. It was “the exercise of intelligent forethought and of decisive action sufficiently far in advance of any likely crisis.”

For more information on Venezuela, click here.

Action

1. Elect leaders who support rebuilding and investing in the U.S. military and its industrial base.
2. Enforce drug laws and deal harshly with drug dealers.
3. Enforce immigration and border laws to stop the flow of drugs and illegal aliens into the country.
4. Support international law and order on the Guyana border.
5. Increase “Gray Zone” cyber, social media, and propaganda efforts defending American civilization against Marxist totalitarianism.
6. Eliminate funding to NGOs and UNRWA that do not support American values.

Laurence F. Sanford is a senior analyst at the American Security Council Foundation.