The Venezuela Vortex

Venezuela, as left behind by Hugo Chávez and as run by Nicolás Maduro, is a socialist tyranny with a lot of bananas and a lot more oil. A failed state with oil is a dangerous thing and every US administra­tion had reasons to wish Maduro gone. But the Trump administration isn’t any US administra­tion. Its military action against “drug boats” in the Caribbean likely violates both international and American law. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth is facing a Congressional inquiry about a second strike on a boat on September 2 which killed the survivors of the first strike, reported first by the Washington Post a few days ago.

Hegseth attributed the strike, conveniently laid at the door of an admiral, to the “fog of war”. The US is not a signatory to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea but American law doesn’t permit military action against civilians in peacetime. Trump, of course, claims he is protecting the US from im­minent attack. Legalities apart, Venezuela is more a conduit for drugs while Colombia produces them. Fentanyl actually comes from Mexico and far more drugs enter the US via the Pacific. Venezuela is a vortex pulling in resources deployed perhaps in the wrong body of water.