Trump deploys massive force in the Caribbean amid claims of narco-terrorism in Venezuela
“Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl” was a 2003 American fantasy swashbuckler film directed by Gore Verbinski, which tells the quest of Captain Jack Sparrow, a savvy pirate, and Will Turner, a resourceful blacksmith, as they search for Elizabeth Swann. Elizabeth, the daughter of the governor and the love of Will’s life, has been kidnapped by the feared Captain Barbossa. Little do they know that the fierce and clever Barbossa has been cursed. He, along with his large crew, is under an ancient curse, doomed for eternity to neither live nor die. That is, unless a blood sacrifice is made.
Fast forward to November 2025, American President Donald Trump is the swashbuckling peacemaker, trying to protect America from “narco-terrorists”. United States Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has formally announced the launch of a US military operation to target so-called “narco-terrorists” as Washington’s large-scale build-up of troops, warships, and fighter jets continues in Venezuela.
“Today, I’m announcing Operation SOUTHERN SPEAR. Led by Joint Task Force Southern Spear and @SOUTHCOM, this mission defends our Homeland, removes narco-terrorists from our Hemisphere, and secures our Homeland from the drugs that are killing our people,” Hegseth said in a post on X. SOUTHCOM is the acronym for US Southern Command, whose area of responsibility covers 31 countries through South America, Central America, and the Caribbean. In a post on social media, SOUTHCOM said US Marines were conducting artillery training on board the USS Iwo Jima – an amphibious assault ship – in the Caribbean in support of US President Donald Trump’s “priorities to disrupt illicit drug trafficking and protect the homeland”.
But, a 2020 report by the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has estimated that 74% of the cocaine reaching the US arrived via the Pacific, and only 8% came on fast boats from the Caribbean islands. Venezuela is considered a transit country for some cocaine destined mostly for Europe, and originating in neighbouring Colombia. Trump has also claimed that the targeted boats were “stacked up … with fentanyl”, but that drug is neither produced nor significantly consumed in South America and is instead mainly manufactured in Mexico using chemical precursors imported from Asian countries, especially China.
For the past many decades, the Caribbean Sea has been the primary maritime route for smuggling illicit drugs into the USA. With the USA being the world’s largest market for illegal drugs, the Caribbean’s access to the long Florida coastlines makes it an ideal smuggling route for producers across the Caribbean, Central, and South America.
US authorities do the bulk of maritime drug policing in the Caribbean. To accomplish this, the Joint Interagency Task Force South, headquartered in Key West, Florida, brings together a range of governmental organizations under the direction of the Coast Guard. This task force includes the Department of Defense, Department of Justice, Drug Enforcement Administration, Customs and Border Patrol, FBI, and CIA.
The principal drug that is smuggled across the Caribbean continues to be cocaine. The leading destination is the USA, mainly from the top three producers of Bolivia, Peru, and Colombia. The primary routes are via Jamaica, where large criminal gangs regulate the flow of cocaine, and the Dominican Republic.
Venezuela’s geography helps it play a major role in the cocaine trade. While some cocaine is produced in Venezuela, more passes through the country from neighbouring Colombia towards Europe and the US. The US escalated its dispute with Venezuela on November 24, 2025, when the State Department added the Cartel de los Soles to its list of foreign terrorist organisations, claiming that it is a drug trafficking organisation led by the Venezuelan president, Nicolás Maduro! The term “terrorist organisation” has traditionally been used for groups with political motivations and for groups seeking to impose a particular religion on a country. Drug trafficking organisations are only motivated to make money illicitly by selling drugs and sometimes weapons.
Venezuela’s government has denied the existence of the Cartel de los Soles, describing the new terrorist label as a “vile lie to justify an illegitimate and illegal intervention against Venezuela”. US forces in the region so far have focused on counter-narcotics operations, even though the assembled firepower far outweighs anything needed for them. US troops have carried out at least 21 strikes on alleged drug boats in the Caribbean and Pacific since September 2025, killing at least 83 people.
Reports of looming action have proliferated in recent weeks as the US military has deployed forces to the Caribbean amid worsening relations with Venezuela. The U.S.A. has had bad experiences fighting with adversaries who used drugs as a weapon of war. Vietnam and Afghanistan hold many bitter experiences and lessons for America.
Operation ‘Iron Tempest’ was a year-long bombing campaign to take out the heroin laboratories at the heart of the Taliban’s $200m-a-year opium trade, and it involved over 200 air strikes. But, according to a study by the London School of Economics, Operation Iron Tempest was not what it seemed. Despite excellent intelligence, the multi-million-dollar campaign had a negligible effect on the Taliban and the drug trafficking networks in Afghanistan!
Trump posted a message on Truth Social telling airlines, pilots, drug traffickers, and human trafficking networks that the airspace above Venezuela should be seen as closed. Venezuela condemned Trump’s claim about closing its airspace. Trump has repeatedly referred to Maduro and his government as narco-terrorists. The United States has offered a $50 million (€58 million) bounty for Maduro’s capture — twice as much as that offered for Osama bin Laden, the alleged mastermind of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks!
Will Operation Spear create a new Afghanistan? Can Trump take the risk of a protracted conflict in his backyard? “If he makes a mistake, he’ll only find out when the devil calls him to breakfast in Hell.”
― John Madinger, Lethal Doses: The Story Behind “The Godfather Of Fentanyl”
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1. Text in Blue points to additional data on the topic.
2. The views expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of PGurus.
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