LOS ANGELES (OC).–Warning about possible land intervention in Venezuela, President Donald Trump turned up the heat on Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, asking him to come to the table or face possible military intervention. Trump has declared Maduro the head of a narco-trafficking operation, something Maduro denies. Maduro accuses Trump of seeking regime change but Trump has said recently that he’s open to meeting with Madura and making a deal to curtail narco-trafficking operations but, more importantly, to open up Venezuelan oil markets to U.S. companies. “In recent weeks, you’ve been working to deter Venezuelan drug traffickers,” Trump said on a call with military service members. “We’ll star to stop them by land also. The land is easier but that’s going to start very soon,” Trump said, sending a loud message to Maduro that he needs to start talking.
Pentagon’s Operation “Southern Spear” has attacked 21 boats believed transporting narcotics to the United States, killing 83 people. Among the many things the Trump White House does, members of Congress, led by Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Az.), believe Trump asks U.S. troops to carry out illegal orders or commit crimes. Kelly and other members of Congress think Trump has no legal justification to attacking boats loaded with whatever cargo, including illicit drugs, in the Caribbean and East Pacific. No one yet has taken Trump actions to the International Court of Justice in The Hague, where complex legal issues involving the high seas are often adjudicated. Trump and the Pentagon could be on shaky legal ground ordering strikes on vessels in the open seas, whether or not they carry drugs. There’s a big difference between the war on drugs and military conflict.
Trump’s intent is to stop the flow of dangerous illicit drugs from washing up on U.S. shores, eventually getting to insatiable U.S consumers. Trump has taken the metaphorical war on drugs literally, thinking he can define naro-drug gangs as enemy combatants subject to Pentagon intervention. Attacking 21 ships, killing 83 people working on boats carrying drugs of other cargo, the Pentagon has not made a convincing argument about military intervention. “Few decisions are more consequential for a democracy than the use of lethal force,” 13 Senators and member of the Senate Armed Services and Foreign Relations Committee wrote to Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. U.S. House and Senate members would like to debate the legality of using the Pentagon in the metaphorical war on drugs, when there’s no verification of payloads of suspected narco-ferrying boats at sea.
Trump has been warning for weeks about land strikes on Venezuelan drug operations. Whether Trump can really target Venezuela’s drug trade remains unknown. What’s known for sure is that Venezuela does not manufacturer fentanyl, something primarily manufactured by international Mexican drug cartels. Most illicit drugs from South and Central America involve cocaine or marijuana, not fentanyl, the drug Trump believes poisons America’s youth. When it comes to targeting boats in the Caribbean and East Pacific Trump is on shaky legal ground, largely because narco-trafficing is not military intervention. So, the Pentagon’s response to alleged drug trafficking could be deemed illegal at some point. Trump has 12,000 U.S. troops poised of the coast of Venezuela to intervene on land unless Maduro comes to the table to cut a anti-drug trafficking and oil deal.
Designating Cartel de los Soles as Nicolas Madura’s drug trafficking gang doesn’t mean that the Venezuelan president heads up any illegal narco-trafficking gang. “I might talk to him, we’ll see,” Trump said Nov. 28 when traveling on Air Force One to Florida. Trump said that he’s already stopped about 85% of sea-based narco-trafficking to the U.S. something experts doubt because there are many other ways the cartels get drugs into the U.S. But when it comes to using the Pentagon’s military force to stop boats allege ferrying illicit drugs, Trump has not proven whether the boats actually carry drugs at all. Attacking 21 boats and killing 83 sailors Trump has exposed the U.S. government to considerable liability, when he doesn’t know whether using the Pentagon in the war on drugs is legal. Trump’s lawyers should be looking into the legality of military intervention in the drug trade.
Trump’s military intervention in the high seas has already stopped a number of global and regional airlines from flying into Caracas. Flight cancellations have already affected some 8,000 passengers, prompting the Portuguese Foreign Minister Paulo Rangel to say Venezuela has been overly restrictive in allowing flights into the country. Maduro will have to come to meet with Trump to resolve the current Pentagon intervention before it morphs into land operations. Trump wants Maduro to allow U.S. oil companies access to Venezuelan markets as a gesture of good will before he modifies his anti-drug operations in the region. As it stands now, Trump’s legal team should be working on the legality of Pentagon military intervention in the war on drugs. Whether admitted to or not by the White House, there’s a big difference between national security threats and the war on drugs.
About the Author
John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.
