In 1989, the United States of America, under President George H.W. Bush, invaded Panama and overthrew its president, Manuel Noriega, under the banner of the war on drugs, yet that war never truly ended. In 1993, the drug war exploded in Colombia, culminating in the fall of the notorious drug lord Pablo Escobar, but the war itself persisted. In Mexico, the conflict has raged since 2006 with no end in sight, while in Peru and Bolivia, an ongoing struggle over coca leaves—the raw material for cocaine—continues between the state, farmers, and rebel groups. The so-called war on drugs, however, has never been solely about narcotics; at various moments, it has been about oil, influence, control, politics, and internal security.
Today, the world once again stands on the edge of a new American war, one in which drugs serve as the pretext, but the confrontation extends far beyond them. It began with a blunt statement by President Donald Trump: “We will fight the drug cartels that are strangling America,” pointedly naming Venezuela. The accusation was not aimed at low-level traffickers, but at the head of state himself, Nicolás Maduro. The US State and Justice departments went so far as to offer a $50 million reward for information leading to the arrest of the Venezuelan president on charges of violating US drug laws, placing his name alongside those of senior Venezuelan military officials. It was an unmistakable attempt to reframe a political confrontation as a criminal case, one that could be marketed domestically as a righteous moral crusade.
There is no doubt that smuggling networks operate inside Venezuela, as they do across much of Latin America, but branding an entire country a narco-state required more than evidence; it required a deliberate political decision. Looming behind all of this is oil, the substance that ignites conflicts and redraws maps. Venezuela is no ordinary state: it holds the largest proven oil reserves in the world, and whoever controls this wealth wields immense influence over global energy markets and gains the capacity to challenge Washington’s dominance.
Give the gift of hope
We practice what we preach:
accurate, fearless journalism. But we can't do it alone.
- On the ground in Gaza, Syria, Israel, Egypt, Pakistan, and more
- Our program trained more than 100 journalists
- Calling out fake news and reporting real facts
- On the ground in Gaza, Syria, Israel, Egypt, Pakistan, and more
- Our program trained more than 100 journalists
- Calling out fake news and reporting real facts
Join us.
Support The Media Line. Save democracy.
As Caracas deepened its ties with Moscow, Beijing, and Tehran, the United States began to view what it once considered its uncontested backyard as a stage for its strategic rivals. Roughly two weeks ago, a different kind of war effectively began, fought through suffocating sanctions, financial blockades, asset freezes, and a carefully engineered economic strangulation.
When Trump observed Russian advisers in Caracas, Chinese investments in Venezuelan oil fields, and Iranian aircraft landing at its airports, Venezuela abruptly shifted from a distant crisis to a direct strategic threat. Three factors—oil, Russia, and China—have proven sufficient to justify the beating of war drums. Historically, and in line with the doctrine articulated by former US President James Monroe in 1823, Latin America has been treated as a zone closed to the expansion of foreign powers’ influence. At the same time, Venezuela represents a valuable electoral card for Trump, as Florida remains the decisive battleground state in US elections and is home to large Venezuelan and Cuban communities deeply hostile to leftist regimes in their countries of origin.
Trump understands this dynamic well, which is why he escalated pressure on Maduro not only as a foreign policy maneuver but also to reinforce the image of a strong president confronting and cornering a socialist dictator. So what, then, is the real story behind this looming war? It is not fundamentally a war on drugs, nor even a war on corruption or tyranny, but a war over oil—the resource the United States refuses to allow to drift beyond its sphere of influence.
Pulling Venezuela out of the orbit of Moscow and Beijing and back into the American fold is, from Washington’s perspective, a strategic necessity, as is dismantling a political model that runs counter to American interests. It is a pattern Trump is simultaneously pursuing elsewhere in Latin America, such as in Honduras, where two presidential contenders—both of Palestinian origin, incidentally—are competing for power: Nasry Asfura of the conservative National Party and Salvador Nasralla of the Liberal Party, with Trump unmistakably throwing his weight behind the conservative Asfura.
Rashad Abu Dawood (translated by Asaf Zilberfarb)