My view is that drugs are not the primary issue. They are more a collateral issue. One, he is moving to keep Russia and China out of our hemisphere. Remember all the saber-rattling about Panama and Greenland? Same thing.
While he makes nice with Putin and Xi he is pushing them out. And going after the “shadow fleet”. Also, he is putting the squeeze on Cuba. Blockading Venezuela cuts off fuel to Cuba, which is already teetering on the brink. I think one of his goals is to free Cuba before he leaves office.
And the blockade is a bloodless way to bring down Maduro. For legal reasons he hasn’t been able to state that openly as a goal, so he talks about drugs and terrorism. But along with the Castro regime, he wants Maduro gone just on general principles.
If we start to see hits on Mexican cartel bosses, we’ll know that he is also serious about drugs, and it’s possible we may start to see that. Shutting the border has gone a long way to crippling their operations. But they are adapting.
Interesting. I can see that. DJT does overtly do stuff and say stuff that is promoting ultimate other and deeper goals so what you say could be part of it, actually.
I agree with your view.
Good post. Of course it’s not about drugs (and not at all about fentanyl!).
No doubt Rubio is thrilled at the prospect of the collapse of (1) Cuba and (2) the Maduro regime, but what’s the potential blowback if this plan succeeds?
We always like to imagine there will be a peaceful (or mostly peaceful) transition to the new ruler of our choice, but too often it does not work out that way. We might see Venezuela transformed into a sort of Libya on the Caribbean. We all know the ills launched from the failed state of Libya (the one on the Med) — floods of migrants, terrorists and crime, plus destabilization of countries in the Sahel (take that, France). Obama’s gift that keeps on giving. :(
And what if it isn’t successful and Maduro turns out to be as immovable as the Houthis are indestructible? I guess we could do what we did with the Houthis, declare victory and go home. “We blew up all your little boats, now bye!”