Every accusation is a confession. This is clearly true of the Trump administration’s insistence that Venezuela <https://www.commondreams.org/tag/venezuela> operates as a “narco-state,” exporting terrorism <https://www.npr.org/2025/11/24/g-s1-99000/u-s-label-maduro-cartel-de-los-soles-terror-organization> to the US via fentanyl, now labeled <https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/12/designating-fentanyl-as-a-weapon-of-mass-destruction/> as a “weapon of mass destruction.” The charge is not only false, given that virtually no fentanyl <https://www.wola.org/analysis/facts-to-inform-the-debate-about-the-u-s-governments-anti-drug-offensive-in-the-americas/> enters the country from Venezuela, but transparently political and pretextual.
This hypocrisy was made unmistakable with President Donald Trump’s recent pardon <https://www.npr.org/2025/12/09/g-s1-101277/honduras-seeks-arrest-hernandez-trump-pardon> of former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández, who was convicted <https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c9qewln7912o> in 2024 in a US federal court on drug trafficking charges. Hernández presided over a regime long treated as a strategic ally <https://www.peoplesworld.org/article/u-s-intervention-and-capitalism-have-created-a-monster-in-honduras/> within Washington’s regional security architecture, a reminder that the label of “narco-state” is applied not according to fact but according to the shifting imperatives of US imperial power. This accusation collapses further when placed in broader historical context. For decades, the most powerful state actors facilitating and protecting narcotics trafficking have not been Washington’s adversaries but Washington itself <https://irp.fas.org/congress/1998_cr/980507-l.htm>. Throughout the Cold War <https://www.commondreams.org/tag/cold-war> and the so-called War on Drugs <https://www.commondreams.org/tag/war-on-drugs>, the United States <https://www.commondreams.org/tag/united-states>, above all through the CIA <https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP90-00845R000100170001-8.pdf>, repeatedly subordinated drug enforcement to geopolitical priorities, enabling narco-networks so long as they advanced perceived US interests. These dynamics became especially pronounced in the 1980s, with disastrous consequences both at home and abroad. The decade marked an intensification <https://time.com/archive/6709711/essay-the-reagan-doctrine/> of the Cold War under Ronald Reagan <https://www.commondreams.org/tag/ronald-reagan>. His administration insisted that communist “advances” could not only be contained but rolled back <https://millercenter.org/president/reagan/foreign-affairs>. Upon taking office, Reagan launched his promised global offensive, intervening <https://sites.evergreen.edu/zoltan/wp-content/uploads/sites/358/2024/04/InterventionsList2024.pdf> wherever alleged Soviet influence appeared. Turning a blind eye to drug trafficking became a central feature of this crusade, as anti-communism consistently took precedence over anti-narcotics efforts. *https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/venezuela-us-drugs <https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/venezuela-us-drugs>* -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#39932): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/39932 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/117012983/21656 -=-=- POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. #4 Do not exceed five posts a day. -=-=- Group Owner: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/13617172/21656/1316126222/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
