<
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/nov/24/venezuela-maduro-us-drug-cartel-terrorism>
"Venezuela’s government has accused the US of peddling “ridiculous hogwash”
about its supposed role in sponsoring “narco-terrorism” as Washington continued
to turn up the heat on Nicolás Maduro’s regime and leftwing European
politicians warned South America faced being plunged into “a torrent of
bloodshed”.
On Monday, the Trump administration officially designated a Venezuelan group
known as the “Cartel de los Soles” (the Cartel of the Suns) a terrorist
organization – despite widespread doubts over its actual existence.
The move was the latest chapter in a four-month US pressure campaign,
officially designed to combat South American drug traffickers but which many
suspect is a pretext to overthrow Maduro who Trump tried, but failed, to topple
during his first term.
Since August, the US president has ordered a huge naval deployment off
Venezuela’s northern coast and a series of deadly airstrikes on alleged
narco-boats travelling the Caribbean Sea.
Observers believe Monday’s decision by the state department – which accuses
Maduro of leading the putative Cartel of the Suns – could open the door for
some kind of imminent US military intervention on Venezuela soil.
Venezuela’s government hit back, calling the designation “a despicable lie”
designed to justify “an illegitimate and illegal intervention against Venezuela
in the classic US regime-change format”. It said the supposed cartel was
“nonexistent” and called the US accusations “slander”.
After the world’s largest aircraft carrier, the
USS Gerald R Ford, arrived in
the Caribbean in mid-November, speculation intensified that US military chiefs
were preparing to launch some kind of operation against land targets within
Venezuela.
In an open letter, leftwing European politicians including the former Labour
leader Jeremy Corbyn, Greece’s former finance minister Yanis Varoufakis and
Labour MP Richard Burgon, warned of “the imminent threat of US military
intervention in Venezuela”.
“If the US launches a military intervention in Venezuela, it would mark the
first interstate war by the United States in South America,” the group wrote,
noting how past US military operations in Latin America linked to the “war on
drugs” had “delivered not security but a torrent of bloodshed, dispossession,
and destabilisation”."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
