Washington, DC, October 14, 2025 --  

American military strikes on smuggling boats off Venezuela have less to do with drugs than bringing down the Maduro regime.

American naval strikes against alleged smuggling boats off Venezuela in the past month -- the latest one announced today -- are unnerving the regime of Venezuela's Nicolás Maduro. While the Venezuelan dictator has earned widespread ire of Western leaders, few have made their enmity as personal as President Donald Trump. Back in 2020, Trump accused him of being a drug smuggler and placed a $15 million bounty on his head.¹

Equating Maduro with a drug kingpin has dubious legal merit. But it is undoubtedly a convenient accusation for the Trump administration, because his isolationist supporters are touchy about military adventurism. Invade another country and start a military occupation? In MAGA world, that's a big no-no. But blow up boatloads of brown people while claiming they are members of a drug cartel? That smells like a way to make America great again!

As ugly as this all sounds, there is a silver lining -- the target of Trump's bullying fully deserves it in this case. Not the victims of the boat attacks (who are just unfortunate pawns in the larger dispute) but the real target of the Maduro regime.

Let's be clear -- Venezuela's government under the Maduro dictatorship has been a brutal source of human misery. Maduro has continued the destructive legacy of Hugo Chavez, sending a once rich country to the brink of economic collapse. It has brought chaotic scenes of people scrambling to buy anything left on mostly empty store shelves, and sent millions of refugees to scrape out a living delivering food on scooters in the United States and all corners of Latin America. Any idea that the Chavismo movement represents the common people against a rich elite has become a distant memory. Today's regime stands for nothing more than itself and its small and dwindling gang of supporters. The opposition proved this beyond a shadow of a doubt in 2024, when they published photos of official election tallies proving they won the presidential election, despite Maduro's unfounded claim to the contrary.². A key leader of that effort, opposition politician María Corina Machado, is the winner of this year's Nobel Peace Prize.

Anyone who doubts the true target of Trump's anti-drug effort in the southern Caribbean need look only at the nature of the military buildup. To go after small drug smuggling boats, you don't need four guided missile destroyers and several amphibious assault and transport ships.³ And that armada off the coast of Venezuela is just the tip of the iceberg. The real military buildup is taking place on US bases in Puerto Rico, which are conveniently located 500 miles due north of Caracas (half the distance to Miami.) The Trump administration has reactivated the formerly mothballed Roosevelt Roads Naval Base for this so-called drug battle in the Caribbean. In the past month, transport aircraft, F-35 fighters and helicopters have been seen arriving at Roosevelt Roads.⁴

Outrage by isolationist and lefty Americans is slowly brewing. Last week, the U.S. Senate failed to block the Trump administration from using the military in this manner without congressional authorization. Two anti-war Republicans joined Democrats in a failed attempt to reign in the Trump administration.⁵

How this will all unfold remains unclear. It seems unlikely that Trump will launch a full-scale invasion of Venezuela similar to the 1989 invasion of Panama launched by George H.W. Bush to capture narco-dictator Manuel Noriega. Such an act would trigger a rebellion from his America First supporters. But Trump might take lesser military actions against Maduro, perhaps limited to air strikes backed by special forces actions on the ground. What is unclear is if such actions can be successful in taking out Maduro, vs. creating an embarrassing failure like the 1980 failed Iranian hostage rescue mission. The latter debacle doomed the flagging presidency of Jimmy Carter. Will Trump really risk something similar over Maduro?

Regardless of the merits of military action, anti-Trumpers in all parties would be wise to keep quiet rather than protesting loudly. Yes, using the military to fight alleged drug traffickers may not be technically legal. But it is legally dubious in a George H.W. Bush kind of way, rather than the much worse kind of legally dubious domestic acts that we have come to associate with the Trump administration.

And whatever you think of Trump's militarist acts, don't forget how awful the Maduro regime has been to its people. Isn't it better to have America's bully-in-chief focus his energy on an awful Venezuelan dictator rather than targeting Venezuelan refugees in America who just want to live in peace?

Notes:

1. Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro Threatens Trump in Face of Drug Charges, March 27, 2020

2. Evidence Shows Venezuela's Election was Stolen - but will Maduro Budge? August 6, 2024

3. Business Insider, All the Ships the US Military has Deployed to the Caribbean Amid Tensions with Venezuela, October 9, 2025

4. Reuters, US F-35s Seen lLnding in Puerto Rico Amid Venezuela Tensions, September 13, 2025

5. CBS News, Senate Votes Down War Powers Resolution Aimed at Blocking Trump's Strikes on Alleged Drug Boats, October 8, 2025