Trump, Venezuela & America's Long War On Drugs In Latin America

As Donald Trump is making verbal threats to Venezuela leader Nicolas Maduro and has been bombing boats in the name of a war on drugs, he is continuing a long tradition of American intervention in the affairs of Latin American countries that has been counter-productive to both the U.S. and Latin America.

Even though I think that Maduro is a dictator who has been threatening democracy in Venezuela, I am very wary about Trump's threats of military intervention in Venezuela.

During both the U.S. fight against communism during the Cold War and the later War on Drugs period in the 1980s and 1990s, the U.S. has a history of overthrowing Latin American governments, supporting right wing dictatorships and being complicit in human rights violations against indigenous people and the poor. The U.S. created The School of the Americas that trained right wing dictators and paramilitary forces on torture, repression and other human rights violations.

Often times American corporations would exploit the natural resources without any benefit to the indigenous people and the residents of the area.

I worry that Trump's threats to invade Venezuela to fight against drugs is very reminiscent to George W. Bush's rush to invade Iraq by accusing Saddam Hussein of having weapons of mass destruction. The Trump administration has not offered any proof to justify bombing alleged drug boats.

During the American War On Drugs, the CIA support right wing, repressive governments involved in coca production even as the DEA was working with those same governments to suppress coca production.

REFERENCES
"A Short History of the Long War on Drugs in Latin America. How did we get to a moment when a president could order the serial killing of civilians, publicly share videos of the crimes, and find that the response is little more than a shrug?" by Greg Grandin for The Nation
https://www.thenation.com/article/world/war-on-drugs-latin-america/

"Operation Condor: A Network of Transnational Repression 50 Years Later. How Condor launched a wave of cross-border assassinations and disappearances in Latin America." by Peter Kornbluh for The Nation
https://www.thenation.com/article/world/latin-america-dictatorship-cove…

"Why we call for the closure of the School of the Americas" by Mary Ann McGivern for The National Catholic Reporter
https://www.ncronline.org/blogs/ncr-today/why-we-call-closure-school-am…

Here is the website of School of the Americas Watch, a group dedicated to ending US militarization, oppressive US policies and other forms of state violence in the Americas. They protest the work of the School of the Americas that teach right wing governments on torture, extortion and execution.
https://soaw.org/about-soa-watch

"A Lawless Trump Administration Runs Amok in the Caribbean. As great powers abandon even the pretense of law, the undeclared war on Venezuela exposes a world ruled by extortion, collapse, and the redefinition of sovereignty." by Benjamin Fogel for Jacobin Magazine
https://jacobin.com/2025/10/venezuela-trump-law-war-sovereignty

"Did a U.S. Boat Strike Amount to a War Crime?" a New York Times Podcast with Rachel Abrams and Charlie Savage
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqs-LJHpUhA