When I lived in Cuba and the presidential elections were approaching in the United States, I remember that it was the main news story in the international section of the centralized Castro media system. Without change, every four years, the regime’s hacks feigned a friendly distance from the Democratic candidate, while demonizing the Republican.
They were terrified that some member of the Great Old Party would win. They knew that the Cuban-American lobby wouldn’t flirt with socialist tyrannies, that the libertarian wing hated collectivists, and that there remained a spirit of Christian nobility that repelled the atheistic Marxism of Havana.
On the other hand, I heard mid-level members of the regime say that a liberal politician was the lesser evil. They understood that an increasingly radical leftist base was growing within the ranks of the Blue Party, the mainstream media, the universities, and the Senate and Congress. And this revolutionary shift at the grassroots has caused Democratic politicians within the elite to abandon positions they held 10 or 20 years ago regarding migration, marriage, etc. Today, Zohran Mamdani’s party is not the same as John F. Kennedy’s.
And Venezuela is the most recent example.
This Monday, several Democratic legislators serving on the House Foreign Affairs Committee published a statement opposing the Trump administration’s new anti-drug offensive against Nicolás Maduro’s regime.
The statement accused the president and Secretary of State Marco Rubio of promoting “regime change” in Venezuela. “The American people do not want another war, and Congress cannot allow any president to illegally or unilaterally start one. That’s not how the Constitution works,” the document stated, at a time when Trump has intensified the pursuit of drug trafficking networks linked to Chavismo.
The truth is that there has been a change of perspective regarding the elite that governs Venezuela. It is not a legitimate government (it committed massive fraud in the last election); it is a criminal cartel that traffics drugs to the United States and has connections to terrorist organizations like El Tren de Aragua. This criminal cartel is known as the Cartel of the Suns, an organization that involves high-ranking Venezuelan officials in drug trafficking and is headed by Maduro.
In August, the U.S. government raised the reward for information leading to the dictator’s arrest to $50 million.
Political analyst Carlos Ruckauf emphasized that with the recent U.S. government shutdown, Trump has 90 days to do what he needs to do in Venezuela before requesting authorization from Congress.
Since late August, the United States has increased its naval troops in the southern Caribbean and conducted spectacular live ammunition training to combat drug trafficking. This, coupled with a tour of Latin America by Marco Rubio, led several governments to label the Maduro regime a narco-terrorist entity.
Military actions in international waters began on September 2 when U.S. drones detonated a drug barge. To date, some five vessels have been destroyed.
Following the statement from the House Democratic Foreign Affairs Committee, Venezuelan voices in exile responded.
Exiled writer Emmanuel Rincón, in conversation with Cuban-American Congressman Mario Díaz-Balart (R-Fla.), said the way to solve the Venezuelan problem and other related problems, such as “mass migration, crime, and the tons of drugs polluting our streets, is to do what President Trump does: use the brave men and women of our armed forces to put an end to the narco-terrorists.”
For his part, Venezuelan journalist Orlando Avendaño said that the Democrats’ attitude did not surprise him, pointing out that because they hate Trump so much, “they prefer to ally themselves with a narco-regime that floods the streets of the United States with drugs and criminals like the Tren de Aragua.” And he asserted that the United States will not be dragged into another war, because Maduro lacks the capacity to wage one. “What he does have, if left unchecked, is the ability to fuel drug trafficking throughout the continent, foment regional destabilization, and finance terrorism (including Islamic terrorism),” he explained.
Avendaño focused on Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.), who spearheaded the statement. “He is known for his closeness to Chavismo: he attended Hugo Chávez’s funeral in 2013 and has maintained a lenient stance toward Nicolás Maduro’s regime, which he has avoided firmly condemning on multiple occasions,” the exile said. He added that in recent years, Meeks has blocked or slowed initiatives to strengthen sanctions against Venezuelan officials and support democratic movements in Venezuela.
The Trump administration can take action against the Cartel of the Suns, because the consideration that it is facing a government is no longer on the table. Instead, it is facing a regime declared to be a narco-terrorist cartel and its leader, Maduro, wanted by a warrant issued in New York.
This week, Trump canceled diplomatic negotiations with Caracas, and the war on drugs is entering a new phase. Will they move from ambushing low-level drug traffickers to affecting regime change in Venezuela?
