Venezuela is once again facing a psychological and media offensive from the U.S. government, led by President Donald Trump. This week, White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt reaffirmed Washington’s aggressive and interventionist policy, declaring that her country “is willing to use all elements of U.S. power” to halt the alleged flow of drugs into its territory and “bring those responsible to justice.”
Her remarks come amid controversy and alarm over the deployment of three warships carrying 4,000 soldiers to Caribbean waters near Venezuela—an action that Caracas interprets as a clear military provocation. In her statements, Leavitt dismissed the legitimacy of the constitutional government of President Nicolas Maduro Moros, who was re-elected in July 2024 with broad popular support despite destabilization efforts by the far right backed by Washington. She even went so far as to describe the Venezuelan government as a “narco-terror cartel,” echoing the interventionist narrative of the United States.
The DEA and drug trafficking as a pretext
In the same vein, the director of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Terry Cole, accused Venezuela—without evidence—of collaborating with Colombian guerrillas and Mexican cartels to traffic drugs into the United States, she also followed in line by saying the country had become a “narco-terrorist state.”
Venezuela’s response was swift. Executive Vice President Delcy Rodriguez denounced these allegations as an attempt to justify new imperialist aggressions aimed at seizing the nation’s vast energy resources and undermining Bolivarian internationalism.
The Wasp class amphibious assault ship USS Iwo Jima in the Caribbean.
Rodríguez emphasized that the DEA’s own official reports—National Drug Threat Assessment 2024 and 2025—do not mention Venezuela as a significant factor in drug trafficking, exposing the lack of credibility behind the accusations. “This is a crude ploy to tarnish our country’s image and pave the way for further aggression,” she stated.
This military incursion into the Caribbean to stop drug trafficking is a fake narrative. The Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA) reports that only about 7 percent of U.S.-bound cocaine transits through the Eastern Caribbean via Venezuela, while approximately 90 percent takes Western Caribbean and Eastern Pacific routes. UNODC’s 2025 World Drug Report likewise confirms that trafficking remains concentrated in major Andean corridors, not through Venezuela. The issue is not drugs but bringing down the Bolivarian government which is at the top of U.S. foreign policy priorities.
Bolivarian response in defense of sovereignty
The Bolivarian Government warned that these threats not only endanger Venezuela’s stability but also jeopardize regional peace, directly contradicting the Zone of Peace declared by CELAC in 2014, which promotes sovereignty and cooperation among Latin American nations.
President Nicolás Maduro underscored the role of the Venezuelan people and the Bolivarian National Militia as guarantors of territorial defense. “We have broken, as Chavez once did, with military dependence on the ‘gringo’ empire and its occupation armies that inflicted so much damage on Latin America,” the president declared.
He announced a national enlistment process for all militia forces next weekend, which will be deployed across barracks, military units, Bolívar squares, and the 15,751 popular comprehensive defense bases throughout the country. Maduro also urged the National Defense System to maintain constant coordination among civil, military, police, and political structures to ensure comprehensive defense. He went on to say The people are mobilized and united.
“While Washington threatens, Venezuela advances firmly in peace and sovereignty. True effectiveness against crime is achieved by respecting the independence of peoples,” Maduro affirmed, directly countering the imperial strategy of harassment.
Alejandra Garcia is a correspondent for Resumen Latinoamericano in Havana and a nightly anchor on Telesur evening news
Source: Resumen Latinoamericano -English