Desperate with the United States military operation against drug trafficking in the Caribbean Sea (which has already spread to the Pacific Ocean) and with the possibility of actions by the CIA and on land in Venezuela, dictator Nicolás Maduro is resorting to two strategies.
The first, typical of Chavismo, is bravado. The second is more unusual: Maduro is trying to convince American President Donald Trump that he is not involved in drug trafficking (despite abundant evidence) and that his regime is doing everything it can to combat this type of crime.
In August, when the American operation had not yet begun but had already been announced, the Chavista regime sent 15,000 soldiers to the border with Colombia.
On the occasion, Venezuela’s Minister of the Interior, Justice and Peace, Diosdado Cabello, who has a reward offer from the United States of US$25 million for information leading to his capture and conviction, said that the operation had the objective of combating drug trafficking and that drones, boats, aircraft and other vehicles would be used in the region.
“We have seized an extraordinary amount of drugs this year, an amount that exceeds any estimate. [americanos] They know this internally, anyone who tries to smuggle drugs through Venezuela knows they will face a scathing response. Venezuela will not be a territory for drug trafficking,” said Cabello, who claimed that the government seizes more than 70% of the drugs that pass through Venezuelan territory.
In September, Maduro, for whom the United States this year increased the amount it offers to US$50 million for information leading to his arrest and conviction on charges of leading the Los Soles Cartel, increased the contingent sent to the Venezuelan borders to 25,000 soldiers.
According to information from the newspaper El País, at the time, the Chavista regime said that it aimed to “prove the non-existence of illicit crops” in Venezuela and “block the area of potential drug trafficking”.
“No one will come to do our work for us. No one will step on this earth to do what we must do,” said Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino López.
In a letter, Maduro asked for dialogue with Trump
Also in September, Maduro sent a letter to Trump in which he asked for the calming of tensions between the two countries and reaffirmed the claim that his regime is not linked to drug trafficking.
“This is the most blatant case of disinformation against our nation, with the aim of justifying an escalation into an armed conflict that would inflict catastrophic damage on the entire continent,” Maduro wrote. The dictator also offered Trump “help” to arrest leaders of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua.
In October, when the American military operation had already bombed several vessels allegedly transporting drugs near the coast of Venezuela, the Bolivarian National Armed Force (Fanb) intensified the publicity of alleged aircraft interceptions and destruction of clandestine drug trafficking landing strips.
This week, after the “neutralization” of three aircraft in two areas close to Colombia, Padrino López argued that the number of planes hit in 2025 by Venezuelan forces reached 20, “absolutely all” for “drug trafficking purposes”, he claimed.
For now, such “effort” has not moved Trump: in addition to the president having announced authorization for the CIA to carry out “lethal” operations in Venezuela and considering ground operations in the South American country, White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said in September that Maduro’s letter was full of lies and that Chavismo’s communication attempts do not change the United States’ position vis-à-vis the Venezuelan regime.
The spokeswoman recalled that Washington considers “the Maduro regime to be illegitimate, and President Trump has clearly demonstrated his willingness to use all necessary means to stop the illegal trafficking of lethal drugs from the Venezuelan regime to the United States.”
Another negative sign for Chavismo is that, in October, Trump ordered the end of negotiations led by special envoy Richard Grenell with the Maduro regime.
To remain in power, the dictator will need to try other alternatives – persuasion, for now, is only producing failures.
