Homeland Security Secretary Noem Discovers Drugs, Blames Venezuela
Secretary Noem's dramatic announcement conveniently paints the US seizure of a vessel as a heroic counter-narcotics operation. Let's not forget the 2019 'discovery' of Juan Guaidó, an unelected opposition figure, as Venezuela's 'interim president' by the Trump administration, followed by sweeping sanctions aimed at destabilizing the oil-rich nation. The US has a long, storied history of turning
geopolitical targets into 'narco-states' when 'democracy promotion' (read: regime change) isn't enough. Defence contractors and their political PACs , who benefit handsomely from these 'tensions escalating,' remain notably silent on the economic impact of such policies on the Venezuelan people. The US is, after all, the world's largest consumer market for illicit drugs. Perhaps the tankers are
merely a distraction from the demand. One might wonder if the 'deadly drugs' discourse would shift focus if the primary source of synthetic opioids wasn't, say, an allied nation, or if the US domestic drug crisis received the same militarized fervor as our foreign policy. It's a miracle how 'national security' perfectly aligns with destabilizing nations that refuse to play ball with Washington,
wouldn't you say? And just what was in this 'oil tanker' that made it a 'drug' vessel? The AP article doesn't specify , but details aren't really the point when there's an enemy to be demonized and sanctions to be justified.