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Why is a ‘regime change’ in Venezuela a stupid idea?

By Raphael Machado | Strategic Culture Foundation | October 11, 2025

It would be a mistake to say that with Trump’s return to the White House, Venezuela is once again under pressure. It never stopped being under pressure since the final years of the Obama administration. But it is legitimate to say that Trump 2.0 has initiated a new phase in the over-10-year hybrid campaign against the Bolivarian state.

We have already seen sanctions, attempts at color revolution, attempts to install an “alternative” president, the theft of Venezuelan gold reserves, the refusal to recognize the legitimacy of elections, provocations at the borders, and even the blocking of its entry into BRICS (sadly spearheaded by Brazil).

Now, however, we see military threats looming on the horizon against Caracas.

Harbingers of this had already occurred.

In 2020, for example, there was an attempt to infiltrate Venezuelan territory with mercenaries hired by the American company Silvercorp with the goal of overthrowing the government of Nicolás Maduro.

In 2024, the CEO of the former private military company Blackwater started the “Ya casi Venezuela” project to raise funds with the alleged aim of overthrowing Nicolás Maduro. Recently, he also stated that the $50 million bounty should apply not only to Maduro’s capture but also to his assassination.

And, as we know, between late August and early September, we saw a series of events that raised tensions in the Caribbean Sea, such as the deployment of warships to the Caribbean and the bombing of four Venezuelan boats that were allegedly transporting drugs.

Now, despite the official line that U.S. maneuvers in the Caribbean Sea are aimed at combating drug trafficking, it is noteworthy that Venezuela accounts for only 3% of all drugs reaching the U.S.. Washington does not seem to be deploying the same level of effort to stifle more important sources, such as the Colombian route, for example.

Thus, even without any official declaration, one cannot rule out the possibility that the U.S. is considering moving forward with a new attempt at regime change in Venezuela – but this time in a more direct way, whether through naval and aerial bombardments, drone attacks, or a black ops operation using mercenaries and/or special forces. Or, of course, a combination of all these options.

Naturally, one thing is to set this objective, another is to achieve it, and yet another thing is to deal with the consequences afterward.

From what is known about the fall of Assad, for example, it was apparently achieved, at least in part, by bribing military officers and co-opting Syrian intelligence. The classic tactic of “divide et impera,” divide and conquer, was used to liquidate Syrian power and facilitate the state’s conquest by Al-Julani’s irregular forces.

Any similar attempt regarding Venezuela will fail. Indeed, Venezuela, as a poor country, would in theory suffer from this fragility facing the possibility of its officials being bribed by foreign economic powers, but the Venezuelan Armed Forces were built in a different way from other states, as is the very foundation of Venezuelan state power. The degree of civilian-military integration in Venezuela is such that the supervision of numerous economic activities in the country is carried out by high-ranking military officers.

The Venezuelan state is, at least in part, a military state. The military does not represent an isolated institution separate from political power, available, therefore, for the possibility of co-option and instrumentalization against other institutions. Instead, in terms explained decades ago by the Argentine philosopher Norberto Ceresole, the military constitutes the guard of the Bolivarian Revolution.

Furthermore, Venezuela’s intelligence agencies, SEBIN and DGCIM, are very closely linked to both military and political power. It is these agencies that have been instrumental in all infiltration attempts in Venezuela, and it is unlikely that dissent can be cultivated within these structures.

Finally, although the Bolivarian militias are not very useful against long-range missile attacks, from the perspective of law and order and guaranteeing national stability in the face of the possibility of trying to take advantage of a potential chaotic situation to organize a color revolution, the armed Bolivarian militias can play a subsidiary and supportive role for the authorities, stifling potential foci of dissent and rebellion.

Now, even the goal of overthrowing Nicolás Maduro’s government presents difficulties even if eventually achieved. Other hierarchs could take his place, as they would have the support of the Venezuelan Armed Forces; this could lead to a scenario of prolonged conflict on Venezuelan territory.

As in all cases of a country’s destabilization, emigration tends to increase rather than decrease, due to the greater difficulty of ensuring the common good in the first months after a hypothetical overthrow of Maduro.

Although the U.S. has a tendency to destabilize nations to keep them in a state of permanent chaos, in theory, the same could not be done in Venezuela lest the instability reach the U.S. itself through increased migration and the collapse of law and order.

U.S. security itself also depends on maintaining a stable Venezuela, so the U.S. would truly be forced into “nation-building” in Caracas, facing a heavily armed country, including at the civilian level, and one that is predominantly hostile.

Instead of such adventurous delusions, Washington should be directing its efforts towards reinforcing Venezuelan stability, especially through the withdrawal of sanctions.

October 11, 2025 Posted by | Militarism | , | Leave a comment

When Presidents Kill

By Andrew P. Napolitano | Ron Paul Institute | October 9, 2025

During the past six weeks, President Donald Trump has ordered US troops to attack and destroy four speed boats in the Caribbean Sea, 1,500 miles from the United States. The president revealed that the attacks were conducted without warning, were intended not to stop but to kill all persons on the boats, and succeeded in their missions.

Trump has claimed that his victims are “narco-terrorists” who were planning to deliver illegal drugs to willing American buyers. He apparently believes that because these folks are presumably foreigners, they have no rights that he must honor and he may freely kill them. As far as we know, none of these nameless faceless persons was charged or convicted of any federal crime. We don’t know if any were Americans. But we do know that all were just extrajudicially executed.

Can the president legally do this? In a word: NO. Here is the backstory.

The Constitution was ratified to establish federal powers and to limit them. Congress is established to write the laws and to declare war. The president is established to enforce the laws that Congress has written and to be commander-in-chief of the armed forces. Restraints are imposed on both. Congress may only enact legislation in the 16 discrete areas of governance articulated in the Constitution — and it may only legislate subject to all persons’ natural rights identified and articulated in the Bill of Rights.

The president may only enforce the laws that Congress has written — he cannot craft his own. And he may employ the military only in defense of a real imminent military-style attack or to fight wars that Congress has declared. The Constitution prohibits the president from fighting undeclared wars, and federal law prohibits him from employing the military for law enforcement purposes.

The Fifth Amendment — in tandem with the 14th, which restrains the states — assures that no person’s life, liberty or property may be taken without due process of law. Because the drafters of the amendment used the word “person” instead of “citizen,” the courts have ruled consistently that this due process requirement is applicable to all human beings. Basically, wherever the government goes, it is subject to constitutional restraints.

Traditionally, due process means a trial. In the case of a civilian, it means a jury trial, with the full panoply of attendant protections required by the Constitution. In the case of enemy combatants, it means a fair neutral tribunal.

The tribunal requirement came about in an odd and terrifying way. In 1942, four Nazi troops arrived via submarine at Amagansett Beach, New York, and exchanged their uniforms for civilian garb. At nearly the same time, four other Nazi troops arrived via submarine at Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, and also donned civilian clothing. All eight set about their assigned task of destroying American munitions factories. After one of them went to the FBI, all eight were arrested.

President Franklin Roosevelt panicked and ordered all eight summarily executed. When two of the eight protested in perfect English that they were born in the US, and their protests proved accurate, FDR decided to appoint counsel for all of them and to hold a trial.

At trial, all eight were convicted of attempted sabotage behind enemy lines — a war crime. The Supreme Court quickly returned to Washington from its summer vacation and unanimously upheld the convictions. By the time the court issued its formal opinion, six of the eight had been executed. The two Americans were sentenced to life in prison. Their sentences were commuted five years later by President Harry Truman.

The linchpin to all this was FDR’s decision to appoint counsel and have a trial. The Supreme Court made it clear that even unlawful enemy combatants — those out of uniform and not on a recognized battlefield — are entitled to due process; and, but for the trial afforded to the Nazi saboteurs, it would not have permitted their executions.

This jurisprudence was essentially followed in three Supreme Court cases involving foreign persons whom the George W. Bush administration had arrested and characterized as enemy combatants detained at the US Naval Base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

In wartime, US troops can lawfully kill enemy troops that are engaged in violence against them. But, pursuant to these Supreme Court cases, the United Nations Charter — a treaty that the US wrote — as well the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights — another treaty that the US wrote — if combatants are not engaged in violence, they may not be harmed, but only arrested. All this presumes that Congress has in fact declared war on the country or group from which the combatants come. That hasn’t happened since Dec. 8, 1941.

Now, back to Trump ordering the military to kill foreigners in the Caribbean. International law provides for stopping ships engaged in violence in international waters. It also provides for stopping and searching ships — with probable cause for the search — in US territorial waters. But no law permits, and the prevailing judicial jurisprudence deriving from the Constitution and federal statutes absolutely prohibits, the summary murders of folks not engaged in violence — on the high seas or anywhere else.

The Attorney General has reluctantly revealed the existence of a legal memorandum purporting to justify Trump’s orders and the military’s killings — but she insisted the memorandum is classified. That is a non sequitur. A legal memorandum can only be based on public laws enacted by Congress and interpreted by the courts. There are no secret laws, and there can be no classified rationale for killing the legally innocent.

If the memorandum purports to permit the president to declare non-violent enemy combatants on a whim and kill them, it is in defiance of 80 years of consistent jurisprudence, and its drafters and executors have engaged in serious criminality. Where will these extrajudicial killings go next — to Chicago?

To learn more about Judge Andrew Napolitano, visit https://JudgeNap.com.
COPYRIGHT 2025 ANDREW P. NAPOLITANO
DISTRIBUTED BY CREATORS.COM

October 10, 2025 Posted by | Civil Liberties | , , | Leave a comment

White House Has Not Provided Proof That Boats Destroyed in Caribbean Were Carrying Drugs

By Kyle Anzalone | The Libertarian Institute | October 8, 2025

Two US officials said the White House has not provided proof to Capitol Hill that the four boats destroyed by the US military in the Caribbean were part of drug trafficking operations.

Starting in September, the US military began targeting vessels in the Caribbean Sea that were allegedly smuggling drugs for cartels designated as Foreign Terrorist Organizations. The US has destroyed at least four ships, killing 21 people.

Two sources speaking with the AP said the Trump administration has not provided evidence to Congress that the boats were in fact linked to narco-terrorist cartels. The officials explained the White House has only pointed to the videos published by President Donald Trump and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth showing the boats being destroyed by US strikes.

The Constitutionality and legality of the strikes are in question. Congress has not declared war on the cartels. President Donald Trump says the US is now engaged in an armed conflict with the narco-terrorist organizations.

The White House has been tight-lipped about its legal authority to use military force in law enforcement matters. Attorney General Pam Bondi refused to tell Congress how the White House believes it has the authority to conduct extrajudicial executions.

While the Trump administration says the goal of the attacks is to stop the flow of lethal drugs to the US, reports say the White House is moving towards attempting to remove Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro from power.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio claims that Maduro is the leader of a narco-terrorist cartel.

October 9, 2025 Posted by | War Crimes | , , | Leave a comment

US strikes another vessel off Venezuela, killing four

Al Mayadeen | October 3, 2025

The United States has escalated its military campaign in Latin America, carrying out yet another deadly strike off the coast of Venezuela under the false pretext of fighting narcotics trafficking.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced the latest strike in a post on X, celebrating the destruction of a small vessel that US officials claimed was carrying drugs. A video accompanying the post showed the boat erupting into flames, a scene observers say reveals Washington’s growing reliance on extrajudicial force and its willingness to kill without evidence, trial, or accountability.

“Four male narco-terrorists aboard the vessel were killed in the strike,” Hegseth wrote, asserting that it “was conducted in international waters just off the coast of Venezuela while the vessel was transporting substantial amounts of narcotics — headed to America to poison our people.” He vowed, “These strikes will continue until the attacks on the American people are over!!!!”

The latest strike brings the death toll to at least 21 people across four attacks in recent weeks, none of whom have been positively identified as traffickers. Washington has offered no independent proof linking the victims to drug networks, raising concerns that the US is unilaterally executing individuals in foreign waters under a fabricated pretext.

This new military doctrine stems from President Donald Trump’s declaration that the United States is now in “armed conflict” with drug cartels, reclassifying them as “terrorist organizations”, a move legal scholars have condemned as an attempt to bypass international law. A Pentagon notice sent to Congress, obtained by AFP, claimed: “The president determined these cartels are non-state armed groups, designated them as terrorist organizations, and determined that their actions constitute an armed attack against the United States.” The same document described alleged smugglers as “unlawful combatants”, stripping them of legal protection under the Geneva Conventions.

Rights groups have warned that such terminological manipulation echoes past US practices, from the “war on terror” to the invasions of Panama and Iraq, where legal gray zones were exploited to justify preemptive violence and regime change.

Political Theater and Extrajudicial Killings

The Trump administration has openly celebrated these operations as demonstrations of strength rather than law enforcement. Trump’s communications director, Steven Cheung, declared that traffickers had been “turned into stardust.” On Truth Social, Trump himself echoed the narrative, writing: “A boat loaded with enough drugs to kill 25 TO 50 THOUSAND PEOPLE was stopped, early this morning off the Coast of Venezuela, from entering American Territory.”

But independent analysts and international law experts argue that the campaign bears all the hallmarks of a covert regime change operation. The strikes come amid an unprecedented US military buildup near Venezuela, including the deployment of F-35 warplanes to Puerto Rico, marking the largest show of force in the Caribbean in more than three decades. Venezuela’s Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino condemned the presence of US jets near Venezuelan airspace as “a provocation” and “a threat to our national security.”

October 4, 2025 Posted by | Militarism, War Crimes | , , | Leave a comment

US ‘preparing options’ for strikes inside Venezuela – NBC

RT | September 27, 2025

The US is “preparing options” for strikes on alleged drug traffickers inside Venezuela, NBC has reported, citing unnamed American officials.

In recent weeks, Washington has sunk at least three boats it alleges were carrying narcotics off the coast of the Latin American country, killing at least 17 people. Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has denied any links to drug trafficking and insists that the attacks were part of a US attempt to overthrow him.

The bombing of Venezuela could happen “in a matter of weeks,” the broadcaster reported on Saturday. However, according to its sources, the measure has not yet been approved by US President Donald Trump.

According to the officials, the moves being discussed in Washington mainly include drone strikes on drug laboratories as well as members and leaders of trafficking groups.

The US is considering further escalations because some in the Trump administration are disappointed that the deployment of US warships and aircraft to the Caribbean and attacks on boats did “not appear to have weakened Maduro’s grip on power or prompted any significant response,” one of the sources said.

Trump is “prepared to use every element of American power to stop drugs from flooding into our country and to bring those responsible to justice,” a senior administration official told NBC.

At the same time, the US and Venezuela have been talking to each other through unspecified Middle Eastern intermediaries, with Maduro allegedly offering some concessions to Trump in order to defuse tensions, a source told the broadcaster.

In his address to the UN General Assembly on Friday, Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yvan Gil Pinto condemned the US for the “illegal and completely immoral military threat hanging over our heads.”

The minister insisted that Caracas will resist what he called “imperialist aggression” and asked for the support of the international community.

“Venezuela will not yield to pressure or threats. We remain firm in defending our sovereignty and our right to live in peace, free from foreign interference,” he said.

September 27, 2025 Posted by | Militarism, War Crimes | , | Leave a comment

UN Shows Double Standards by Investigating Venezuela Instead of Israel

Sputnik – 27.09.2025

The UN Human Rights Council (HRC) has laid bare its double standards by investigating human rights violations allegedly committed by Venezuela, but not by Israel, Alexander Gabriel Yanez Deleuze, Venezuela’s envoy to the UN in Geneva, told Sputnik.

“The HRC has approved 10 areas of action against Venezuela and allocated $10 million for this. At the same time, you will not find a single mandate that would sound like an ‘investigation of human rights violations by the Israeli government’,” the diplomat stressed.

“There is a mission that deals with human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories, but it does not explicitly mention Israel. This proves the HRC’s double standards,” Deleuze stressed.

On Monday, the Independent International Fact-finding Mission in Venezuela presented a report on human rights violations in the South American country, which was rejected as politicized by Caracas.

The Russian Permanent Mission to the United Nations said that Russia opposed efforts to politicize the UN Human Rights Council and condemned its use to exert pressure on Venezuela.

September 27, 2025 Posted by | Mainstream Media, Warmongering, Progressive Hypocrite | , | Leave a comment

U.S. Threats to Venezeula Are Ramping Up, Not Down

By Ted Snider | The Libertarian Institute | September 23, 2025

Reporting has recently emerged that the United States is considering direct strikes on Venezuela that could increase volatility in the region and the risk of war.

Under the pretext of disrupting the flow of drugs into the United States by Venezuelan drug cartels, the U.S. has militarized the waters off the coast of Venezuela, flooding them with Aegis guided-missile destroyers, a nuclear-powered fast track submarine, P-8 spy planes and F-35 fighter jets. On September 2, American forces fired on a small speed boat that the U.S. claims was running drugs for a Venezuelan cartel.

The Donald Trump administration is yet to offer evidence for its claim. They have neither publicly identified who the eleven people who were killed on the boat were nor what drugs they were carrying. Congress has still not been briefed.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the boat was “probably headed to Trinidad or some other country in the Caribbean.” Trump says it was bound for the United States. Turns out, it was headed back to Venezuela.

U.S. officials familiar with the operation have now told The New York Times that, having “spotted the military aircraft stalking it,” the boat has already “altered its course and appeared to have turned around before the attack started.” The twenty-nine second video that Trump posted on social media spliced together several clips but edited out the boat turning around. Despite this lack of imminent threat, the aircraft, either an attack helicopter or an MQ-9 Reaper drone, “repeatedly hit the vessel before it sank.”

The Trump administration has claimed the right to supplant the National Guard and law enforcement with the military and lethal force on the grounds that the drug cartels are terrorist organizations who pose a threat to the national security of the United States because the drugs they bring into the country to kill Americans. The U.S. has invoked the right to self-defense, and Rubio has insisted that the speed boat was “an immediate threat to the United States.” Except that if it had turned around, it wasn’t.

Setting aside the legitimacy of the terrorist justification, if the boat had already turned around, the immediate threat argument is also blown out of the water. “If someone is retreating, where’s the ‘imminent threat’ then?” Rear Admiral Donald J. Guter, a retired top judge advocate general for the Navy from 2000 to 2002, asked the Times. “Where’s the ‘self-defense’? They are gone if they ever existed—which I don’t think they did.” Rear Admiral James E. McPherson, the top judge advocate general for the Navy from 2004 to 2006, added, “If, in fact, you can fashion a legal argument that says these people were getting ready to attack the U.S. through the introduction of cocaine or whatever, if they turned back, then that threat has gone away.”

The Trump administration has made it clear that the attack was not a one-time anomaly. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said, “We smoked a drug boat, and there’s 11 narco terrorists at the bottom of the ocean, and when other people try to do that, they’re going to meet the same fate.” Since then, three more Venezuelan boats have met the same fate. Hegseth told U.S. troops on a ship in the waters off Puerto Rico that “What you’re doing right now—it’s not training.” He told them that they were on the “front lines” of a “real-world exercise.”

On a post on X (formerly Twitter), Hegseth told U.S. forces that, “It’s not if, it’s when. You’re on a mission…And the full power of the American military…will be used to ensure the American people are kept safe.”

Ken Klippenstein reports that, according to military sources, the Trump administration is considering further, and more significant, strikes on Venezuela. The strikes could take the form of either the shooting down of Venezuelan military aircraft or bombing Venezuelan military airfields. Such action could be taken in one of two situations: if Venezuela threatens the American forces off its coast or if Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro does not enhance his administration’s efforts against drug cartels.

The first situation is a dangerous possibility, depending on the interpretation of “threaten.” Venezuela has twice flown F-16 fighter jets over the USS Jason Dunham. Though Venezuelan aircraft are likely displaying a show of defense, as the United States would, at least, do if there were foreign attack vessels off their coast, Trump said that if Venezuelan jets fly over U.S. Navy vessels again, “they’re going to be in trouble.”

The second raises, once again, the question of what Venezuela is to do. “The Venezuelan government’s collaboration in the fight against drug trafficking was among the best in South America,” according to former Executive Director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime Pino Arlacchi. And now, on top of that, Maduro has ordered the more than doubling of Venezuelan forces to monitor drug trafficking. In addition to the 10,000 troops already deployed, the Venezuelan military is ordering an additional 15,000 “to determine and verify the absence of illicit crops” and to “to block this area also of possible drug trafficking.”

Despite Venezuela’s stellar past record and the current enhancing of its efforts, the United States is still threatening military action if Maduro doesn’t enhance his administration’s efforts against drug growing and trafficking.

What makes the question of what Venezuela is supposed to do more difficult is that there is nothing Venezuela can do. The U.S. is demanding that Venezuela make a course correction to correct a problem that does not exist.

The 2025 UNODC World Drug Report assesses that Venezuela “has consolidated its status as a territory free from the cultivation of coca leaves, cannabis and similar crops.” The report says that “[o]nly 5% of Colombian drugs transit through Venezuela.” The European Union’s European Drug Report 2025 corroborates the United Nations report: it “does not mention Venezuela even once as a corridor for the international drug trade.”

The Trump administration has offered no evidence that the destroyed speed boat was carrying drugs or drug smugglers or that it was on its way to American shores. Even if it was, it posed no immediate threat because it had already turned around and headed back to port. The Maduro government has already addressed American demands and increased its efforts against the drug growing and trafficking that was never a problem in the first place. None-the-less, the United States is threatening further military strikes on Venezuela, raising the hard to answer question of what Venezuela is supposed to do.

September 24, 2025 Posted by | Militarism | , | Leave a comment

Maduro Sent Letter to Trump Offering Talks to Prevent Conflict

By Kyle Anzalone | The Libertarian Institute | September 22, 2025

A top Venezuelan official confirmed that President Nicolas Maduro sent a letter to President Donald Trump earlier this month offering talks to prevent a war.

The letter was published on Vice President Delcy Rodríguez’s Telegram account on Monday, and dated September 5. Maduro says in the letter that Trump has been led to believe “fake news” about Venezuela’s ties to drug trafficking and Caracas’ willingness to work with the Trump administration on returning Venezuelan migrants from the US.

The letter includes a map from a UN study that shows 87% of drugs from South America are trafficked to the Western US via the Pacific Ocean. Only seven percent of South American drugs make it into the US via the Caribbean.

The letter concludes with Maduro offering to engage in direct talks with Trump’s envoy Richard Grenell. In February, Grenell traveled to Venezuela and secured the release of six American prisoners after meeting with Maduro.

Following the meeting with Grenell, Secretary of State Marco Rubio began ramping up sanctions on Venezuela and seizing Maduro’s plane. In July, the State Department designated two Venezuelan cartels as narco-terrorist organizations. Trump has authorized military action against designated narco-terrorist organizations.

Trump and Rubio have claimed that Maduro is the leader of multiple narco-terrorist cartels and have offered a $50 million bounty on the Venezuelan President. The US intelligence community assessed that Maduro is not the leader of Tren de Aragua.

Washington also accuses Maduro of leading the Cartel de los Soles. However, a US-funded NGO has said there is little evidence that the Venezuelan government is the leader of the gang.

The letter from Maduro was sent to Trump in the days following a US strike on a ship in the Caribbean Sea that had left from Venezuela. The President claimed the attack killed 11 members of a narco-terrorist cartel that was attempting to bring drugs into the US. Trump has not offered evidence for the assertion.

The US has conducted two attacks on ships in the Caribbean after the letter was delivered to Trump.

In the post that included the letter, Rodríguez said, “The military threat against Venezuela, the Caribbean, and South America must cease, and the proclamation of a Zone of Peace must be respected.”

September 22, 2025 Posted by | War Crimes | , | Leave a comment

The Bay of Piglets | People and Power

Al Jazeera | April 29, 2021

Latin America has seen a remarkable number of revolutions and coups d’etat over the last century. However, whether military endeavours, covertly backed by foreign governments, or the result of purely domestic political pressure, they have not always been successful or achieved their aims.

Yet few can have failed quite so miserably as a woeful attempt in May 2020 to overthrow the Venezuelan government.

The plot of this often bizarre tale has many elements that will be familiar to students of the region’s history – not least a cast of political exiles, military renegades, US mercenaries and at least one very controversial president. But it also throws up many intriguing questions about who was behind it and what exactly they hoped to gain.

People & Power investigates an affair that many – with a sardonic nod to more infamous events elsewhere – have dubbed The Bay of Piglets.

September 7, 2025 Posted by | Deception, Militarism, Timeless or most popular, Video | , , | Leave a comment

Venezuelan Interior Minister Accuses U.S. of International Law Violations

teleSUR – September 4, 2025

On Wednesday, Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello denounced a disinformation campaign and attacks from the United States against Venezuela, which he said include flagrant violations of international law under the pretext of a supposed fight against drug trafficking.

More specifically, he referred to the dissemination of false information by the United States about an attack on a vessel in the Caribbean. The Bolivarian official said the boat shown in videos did not match Venezuelan fishing boats.

Cabello alleged that the administration of President Donald Trump had committed legal violations by allegedly sinking a vessel in international waters, an act he said left 11 people dead.

The Interior minister emphasized that U.S. actions contravened fundamental principles of international law and the right to life, as the ships did not seek to capture and prosecute the people on board.

Cabello listed some of the multilateral treaties that were violated, including the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (1982), the 1988 Vienna Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and Article 51 of the U.N. Charter.

He also said U.S. military actions contradicted U.S. legislation itself, such as the Maritime Drug Law Enforcement Act and the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution, which enshrines due process.

“We have never seen Washington seek to dismantle a drug cartel inside the United States,” Cabello said, questioning the Trump administration’s alleged anti-drug campaign.

The Bolivarian minister recalled that the United States is the country with the highest drug consumption in the world and suggested that Congress should investigate who is behind these military operations in the Caribbean, which he said appeared aimed at a “regime change.”

“By contrast, Venezuela does fight drug trafficking, wherever it comes from and wherever it goes,” Cabello emphasized, adding that his country does not execute people at sea.

Cabello cited an example of effective cooperation between Venezuela and France on May 30, when 780 kilograms of cocaine were seized in a joint operation, after which the detainees were brought to justice and “not shot or massacred as the United States does.”

The interior minister also noted that U.N. reports describe Venezuela as a country free of drug crops and laboratories, where drug trafficking routes are nonexistent.

“The United States lives off lies and fake news, seeking to destroy the image of any person or country,” Cabello said, recalling that Commander Hugo Chavez was also the victim of disinformation campaigns.

“The imperialism’s historic practice has been to sow falsehoods to strike at the people’s truth,” he said, urging Venezuelans to remain with “firm footing, nerves of steel and maximum popular mobilization.”

Diosdado Cabello, who is also secretary of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), said that transnational far-right forces and their local spokesperson Maria Corina Machado are trying to create “false flags” to justify a possible military attack on the Bolivarian nation.

“They live hiding behind lies!,”he said, recalling that Washington’s narratives create fictitious enemies such as the alleged Cartel of the Suns, which symbolically replaces the non-existent Aragua Train.

September 4, 2025 Posted by | War Crimes | , , | Leave a comment

US escalates its crawling aggression on Venezuela as Caracas prepares defenses

By Drago Bosnic | September 2, 2025

The United States Navy (USN) and Marine Corps (USMC) keep increasing their military presence in the Southern Caribbean, more specifically in the vicinity of Venezuela’s coast. The last days of August saw a significant uptick in their activity, including American warships in eastbound transit through the Panama Canal. Only a week prior, White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt stated that US President Donald Trump was “prepared to use every element of American power to stop drugs from flooding into [the country] and to bring those responsible to justice”, also insisting that “many Caribbean nations and many nations in the region” supposedly “applauded the administration’s counterdrug operations and efforts”.

Interestingly, Mrs. Leavitt never mentioned which specific countries support such actions, nor did she explain how exactly warships armed with medium-range cruise missiles can be used in the supposed “heightened counternarcotics efforts”. Worse yet, the increasingly belligerent Trump administration is openly accusing Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro of supposedly “heading a narco cartel”, using it as a pretext to escalate its crawling aggression on the South American nation. The US State Department website unequivocally says that President Maduro allegedly “helped manage and ultimately lead the Cartel of the Suns, comprised of high-ranking Venezuelan officials”. Expectedly, without verifiable evidence.

“As he gained power in Venezuela, Maduro participated in a corrupt and violent narco-terrorism conspiracy with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization. Maduro negotiated multi-ton shipments of FARC-produced cocaine; directed the Cartel of the Suns to provide military-grade weapons to the FARC; coordinated with narcotics traffickers in Honduras and other countries to facilitate large-scale drug trafficking; and solicited assistance from FARC leadership in training an unsanctioned militia group that functioned, in essence, as an armed forces unit for the Cartel of the Suns”, the accusation reads.

“In March 2020, Maduro was charged in the Southern District of New York for narco-terrorism, conspiracy to import cocaine, possession of machine guns and destructive devices, and conspiracy to possess machine guns and destructive devices,” the website adds, also claiming: “After initially offering a reward offer of up to $15 million for information leading to the arrest and/or conviction of Maduro in 2020, the Department of State on January 10, 2025, increased the reward offer to up to $25 million. On August 7, 2025, the Department announced the further increase in the reward offer to up to $50 million after the Department of Treasury sanctioned Cartel of the Suns as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist on July 25, 2025.”

The US also brags that “Maduro, as leader of Cartel of the Suns, is the first target in the history of the Narcotics Rewards Program with a reward offer exceeding $25 million”. Once again, there’s zero evidence to support a single claim on President Maduro’s “corrupt and violent narco-terrorism conspiracy”. On the other hand, Washington DC has no qualms about backing actual narco-terrorist entities, such as the Albanian extremists currently based in NATO-occupied Serbian province of Kosovo and Metohia, to say nothing of well over half a century of CIA-run drug-related back ops in virtually every country south of the Rio Grande. However, despite decades of sanctions and other forms of pressure, Caracas refuses to budge.

During his first term, Trump was particularly aggressive toward both Venezuela and Iran. Back in 2017, he threatened that the US has “many options, including a possible military option, if necessary”. He made similar statements with regards to Tehran, although he never acted on either during his previous presidency. However, Trump is now far more belligerent and has attacked Iran. Although it largely failed (despite his insistence that it was a “total success”), this demonstrates his willingness to engage in direct armed aggression. American forces in the region are far too few to allow a full-blown invasion, but they’re enough to be used in limited long-range precision strikes, likely on critical infrastructure (particularly in coastal regions).

Washington DC certainly understands this would be nowhere near enough to defeat the Venezuelan military, but it’s possible that the Trump administration is hoping to destabilize Caracas politically. For instance, destroying or damaging the remaining oil refineries would disrupt normal economic activity and exacerbate the Latin American country’s troubles that stem from illegal US sanctions and constant pressure. In turn, Washington DC probably expects protests to erupt or even a full-blown rebellion. This approach is quite common whenever the US finds it more challenging to invade directly. And indeed, Venezuela’s complex geography effectively makes it a combination of Afghanistan and Vietnam, which is an absolute nightmare for any remotely sensible military planner.

Venezuela already deployed around 15,000 troops in the states of Zulia and Táchira (both bordering Colombia). These units are mostly comprised of special police and military personnel, indicating that Caracas is worried about cross-border raids and infiltration. Such measures are perfectly understandable given America’s propensity to use sabotage and terrorist attacks to undermine targeted countries. Back in 2020, the CIA launched the so-called “Operation Gideon” precisely from Colombia, with two boats carrying approximately 60 insurgents commanded by two former members of the US Army Special Forces (better known as “Green Berets”). Both were employed as mercenaries by Silvercorp USA, a Florida-based PMC.

Such private military enterprises are quite common in the US and are used by the Pentagon in order to maintain plausible deniability in case of failure. Precisely this happened to “Operation Gideon”, which was effectively some sort of Trump’s “mini-Bay of Pigs” moment. This failure was attributed to multiple factors, with several US intelligence services accusing one another of “major security breaches”. In fact, back in January, Jordan Goudreau, the head of Silvercorp (himself a former “Green Beret”), accused the CIA and FBI of “sabotaging the operation”. However, whether that’s true or not is irrelevant, as Venezuela needs to be prepared for any similar incursions, particularly now that such actions might serve as the vanguard of direct US aggression.

Drago Bosnic is an independent geopolitical and military analyst.

September 2, 2025 Posted by | Militarism | , | Leave a comment

Venezuela under information attack: municipal elections and the war against truth

By Lucas Leiroz | Strategic Culture Foundation | July 31, 2025

The municipal elections held in Venezuela on July 27, 2025, were accompanied by yet another coordinated international disinformation offensive. Under the pretext of “defending democracy,” corporate media outlets and Western NGOs heavily invested in attempts to delegitimize an electoral process that was broadly monitored, technically robust, and peacefully conducted.

This strategy is not new. It follows a well-tested guideline used against countries that resist the directives of U.S. foreign policy and its allies. The script is simple: preemptively accuse fraud, fabricate signs of repression, and distort post-election realities — all of it amplified through a digital and traditional media ecosystem fully aligned with geopolitical interests.

This year, however, a central piece of that machinery was dismantled by a rising international actor: the Global Fact-Checking Network (GFCN), a network created to monitor and combat disinformation campaigns. The organization — composed of journalists, legal experts, and international observers — was present in Venezuela during the vote and published an extensive report refuting the main allegations circulated by Western agencies.

Among the most widely spread falsehoods was the claim that opposition parties had been prevented from participating. However, official data from the National Electoral Council (CNE) show the opposite: opposition candidates not only participated but won in 50 out of 335 municipalities — something that would be impossible under any form of institutional obstruction. The truth is that certain radical opposition sectors, for political calculation, chose to boycott the elections and later use their own absence as supposed evidence of exclusion.

Another narrative dismantled was that of the “absence of international observers.” Despite repeated claims of Venezuela’s isolation, more than 1,400 observers from 45 countries were present — including representatives from the GFCN, Latin American organizations, and electoral rights institutes. They reported a calm environment, a notable voter turnout, and full freedom to conduct work. Observers even accompanied the parallel vote counting process between electronic and paper ballots — one of the most advanced audit mechanisms in Latin America.

Videos and images of allegedly empty polling stations also gained traction, suggesting massive abstention. However, the reality — confirmed both by CNE statistics and verified footage — showed a turnout rate of 44%. For a municipal election held amid an economic crisis fueled by international sanctions, this is a significant figure. Many regions saw lines, a festive atmosphere, and broad local journalistic coverage.

The old accusation concerning the so-called “red points” — government-organized social assistance tents on election days — was also recycled. Critics attempt to link these spaces to mechanisms of electoral coercion. But these services — food, medical aid, legal assistance — have existed for over two decades and continuously serve the population. There is no proven link between these activities and vote manipulation, nor has any formal complaint been filed with the CNE on this matter.

These attempts to distort reality have a clear goal: to justify the continuation of illegal sanctions and feed the narrative that Venezuela is under authoritarian rule. The paradox is striking — those who attack the legitimacy of Venezuela’s ballot boxes openly support parliamentary coups, self-proclaimed presidents, and interim governments backed by Washington.

Western coverage of Venezuela does not fail out of incompetence, but by design. It plays a well-defined geopolitical role: to destabilize independent governments, weaken national institutions, and portray Caracas as a hostile player in the Latin American chessboard. By dismantling these narratives with data, direct observation, and objective analysis, networks like the GFCN play an essential role in defending the truth — something that, today, is as strategic as the most valuable resources.

August 1, 2025 Posted by | Deception | | Leave a comment

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