The United States is mobilising the largest military build-up in the Caribbean in decades. As I write, at least 10,000 US soldiers – on board 10 warships – are patrolling the southern Caribbean coast. That includes a nuclear submarine, several destroyers and a missile cruiser.
Already, at least seven small boats – accused of transporting drugs – have been bombed. More than thirty people on board have been killed. Donald Trump has authorised the CIA to conduct covert operations inside Venezuela. Now, the US administration is threatening direct military action, accusing President Maduro of leading an organised crime gang.
We should call these operations what they are: extrajudicial killings. The US has not yet provided any information about the people on board the ships, let alone any evidence that they were transporting drugs. Indeed, it is well known that most of the cocaine does not come from Venezuela on small boats, but from major commercial shipments via the Pacific.
This is before we have even tested the bogus assumption that, even if these ships were carrying drugs, military action would be the right thing to do. “Every one of those boats is responsible for the death of 25,000 American people, and the destruction of families all over our country”, Trump has said. What utter nonsense. The US administration know that the War on Drugs has been a total and utter failure. There are several causes of skyrocketing drug use in the United States: poverty, exploitation and money laundering for starters. If the United States wanted to reduce drug consumption, it would start with any of these factors, rather than with extrajudicial killings of people on small boats from Venezuela.
The real reason for this military escalation is clear: regime change. This is not about drugs. This is about the United States reasserting power in its (imperially named) ‘backyard’. It is no coincidence that this action is being taken at a time when countries in Latin and South America are looking increasingly toward BRICS trading partners, particularly China. Military intervention is just one part of a concerted assault on multipolarity. That assault also includes aggressive tariffs on Brazil and sanctions on Cuba, Nicaragua and indeed Venezuela.
It is telling that Trump’s messianic motivations in Latin America do not extend to Argentina, where a right-wing President has plunged the nation into an unprecedented economic crisis characterised by falling employment, soaring poverty and endless corruption scandals. According to Trump, Venezuela warrants military intervention, Argentina deserves a bail-out.
Any US-supported regime change would lead to a spiral of conflict, misery and violence. Indeed, the instability would likely generate the perfect conditions for the very drug-trafficking the US purports to oppose. A war with Venezuela would be catastrophic for the Venezuelan people, and indeed for the wider region if it is dragged into a regional conflict. That explains why Colombia, Brazil and Barbados have already come out in fierce opposition to US military intervention. The US presence has already had a catastrophic impact, remember, for the unidentified occupants on board the boats that have been destroyed.
Of course, war is beneficial for some, not least those who are well aware that Venezuela sits on the world’s largest oil reserves. Regime change in Venezuela has been a project of US imperialism ever since Hugo Chavez became president in 1999, and sought to redirect oil revenues away from Venezuela’s elites and toward the people.
From Vietnam to Iraq, history has taught us that US military intervention only leads to death and destruction. There will be many in our media happy to cheer on war overseas. They will not be the ones to suffer the lasting consequences.
That’s why we urge the UK government to join the global effort to avoid military intervention and to stand up to US intimidation, interference and imperialism. We must continue to speak up for international law, for self-determination and for human rights for all. I’m not interested in bombs. I’m interested in peace. Say no to a US war on Venezuela!