US Insists 'War on Drugs' Not Venezuela, After Capturing Maduro
The mainstream media breathlessly details the US capturing Nicolás Maduro, quoting officials who insist America is "at war with drug cartels, not Venezuela." This, after the US Department of Justice issued a $15 million bounty on an elected foreign head of state back in 2020 (source: DOJ Archives, March 26, 2020), alleging 'narco-terrorism.' One might wonder when the US started issuing bounties on
cartel leaders comparable to those for Osama Bin Laden. This convenient narrative ignores decades of US foreign policy in Latin America, which frequently weaponizes drug trafficking accusations to destabilize governments deemed inconvenient. Remember Panama's Manuel Noriega, indicted on drug charges in 1988, then removed by US invasion in 1989? (Source: NYT Archives, Dec 21, 1989). The 'War on
Drugs' becomes a remarkably flexible pretext when resource-rich nations like Venezuela assert sovereignty. How many coups, overt or covert, have commenced with the ringing alarm bells of 'drug trafficking'?