Public opinion is highly polarized, with many expressing skepticism and outrage over US military actions framed as drug enforcement. Critics label these actions as politically motivated and indicative of imperialistic ambitions, while a significant number of comments support decisive action against drug trafficking. Concerns about due process and the legitimacy of actions taken against suspects permeate discussions, leading to deep distrust toward US motives and calls for Venezuela's right to self-defense.

United States

Venezuela

Drug Cartels

US strikes suspected drug boat

Venezuelan F-16s pass low over US destroyer

US deploys F-35s

\[...\]

US shoots down Venezuelan F-16?

LuisRobertDylan

battywombat21

DEEP_STATE_NATE

What are you trying to achieve with F-35s against cartels?

Or are they simply the normal multi-role fighter jet now?

BembelPainting

Trump's saber-rattling toward Venezuela is...weird. Considering the small size of the total size of forces deployed (literally not even 5000 people; hardly more than a token force) off the coast of Venezuela in the past week, the notion that Trump is about to order an invasion of Venezuela still seems absolutely preposterous at present. But it's also clear that whatever the fuck America's goals are, those goals go far beyond just suppressing drug trafficking.

What's going on here? Is this all just to throw red meat to his supporters? To intimidate Maduro into making some sort of diplomatic and/or economic concessions (for instance, trying to make him break off ties to Colombian guerilla organizations, or crack down on cocaine cultivation within Venezuela)? To provoke a military incident and thus fabricate the justification for an _actual_ invasion sometime later?

Seriously, all this is so damn _weird._

!ping LATAM&amp;FOREIGN-POLICY

p00bix

algebroni

hypsignathus

I wonder if some F-35 pilot will get to paint a fishing boat decal.

vi_sucks

Lighthouse_seek

I think I’ve said this before in this subreddit but I truly feel like my people must have brought about some sort of generational curse upon themselves in the early days of my homeland, likely during colonization, idk

But man

What a string of luck we’ve had this 21st century

A quarter century of corrupt dictators, one of which who talks to birds, and now a maniac with the world’s most powerful military force at his command wants to come at us for an easy political win

I laugh so I don’t cry

maracaibo98

It's really transparent how this administration loves going to war with small forces that can't possibly fight back while being so deferential to Russia

repete2024

I wish I had any faith in Republicans to do the right thing. Venezuela deserves much better than Maduro

FuckFashMods

We are going to end up colonizing Venuzuela to create jobs for MAGA zoomers, aren’t we

Goodlake

IllConstruction3450

JonstheSquire

bookworm408

USAF spending $500,000,000 on a fighter jet to blow up a $10,000 cartel dinghy

runtfromriatapass

It's obvious that Trump is trying to start a war with Venezuela. Far-right activists have wanted this for years. This is about oil, not drugs. It will be Iraq 2.0.

turb0_encapsulator

There's really no such thing as international law.  We had troops in Vietnam, right?

seditious3

It's really a question of what restrictions American law places on use of the military to combat smuggling. If this is litigated, we may find out.  Any military law specialists here?

stevepremo

So much of this administration is going to boil down to “it’s illegal but nobody can/will do anything about it.”

gerbilsbite



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The US is militarily invading Venezuela because Americans buy illicit products from them? Why doesn't Trump just impose tariffs on those drugs and make Venezuela pay the US billions and billions of dollars, like he's doing with China? And isn't China the country of origin for a lot of fentanyl that comes into our country? Or is that Canada? This is confusing, I sure hope Donald is keeping track of all of these details for us.

flugenblar

Of course it’s a farce. I challenge anyone to provide one truth from this administration.

IShouldaDownVotedYa

Cannot trust any "statistics" or "facts" coming from us government right now

Nooneknows882

The drug war in general has always been a farce. If they wanted to end cocaine use for instance the US government could literally outbid the cartels for the coca crop each year and it would cost less than what they currently spend on interdiction.

Aromatic-Flan4609

Its not a farce but he does want people to forget about Epstein. This is unlikely a distraction and more of a egomaniac thing.  He thinks he can solve what no one else could but fails to realize why no one else could.

Wickedocity

The War on Drugs as a whole has always been and always will be a farce.

avocadoflatz

I don’t think this has anything to do with drugs.

JustNeedAnswers78

Allenobriann

It’s not about drugs, in my opinion. Venezuela is a direct threat to Mexico’s market and Mexico is set to become a huge manufacturing asset for the world. US has terrible relations with Mexico but by pushing Venezuela around, US could gain favor. China has been building friendly relations with Mexico for years now and that would be bad for any US citizen, no matter their political views or alignment. 

I’d much prefer if the US would work to build up neighbors instead of tear down but I am no politician.

Dont-be-baby-

Of course it’s a farce when American CIA- if not the largest most powerful drug cartel in the world- are definitely most certainly in bed with those cartels. Not to mention the money laundering the largest banks in the US/the world do for these cartels. 

The only reason this would be about drugs is so the CIA could eliminate the middleman and grow/produce the shit all for themselves. Why allow the locals a cut of the profit when (the CIA) could have *all* of the profit?

The whole system is corrupted and a house of cards. They will use any means necessary so that it doesn’t come crumbling down.

One_Dey

To STILL have a child predator in the White House pretending to represent us!

discoduck007

I hope that any morons foolish enough to put on a uniform for this administration get exactly what 4.5MM reserves can give them.

LordHeretic

****   NEWS ALERT  ****

EVERYTHING perpetrated by this regime is a farce

CutenTough

ViolettaQueso

ZucchiniIntrepid719

On the contrary. It is high time (get it?) we take the war on drugs seriously. Quite frankly, we should be sending the B52s after the cartels. They’re already right there in Louisiana anyway so they probably won’t even need a refuel.

Designer_Wrap_7639

deicide66

Pilotom_7

The drug war is a farce, period.

Well, not to those making bank off it, I guess.  Like cartels and the private prison industry.

Wuthering_depths

One-Engineering8926

As long as some random Reddit site says so it must be true oh and look it has news in the title…yep for sure must be legit lmfao!

whiskeydick1973

NOTHING Trump does is JUST a distraction; he and Miller have announced his intention to use a US war to postpone or cancel midterm elections.

Savage_Hellion

Haunting_Meal296

Yes. Trump wants to put pressure on maduro. Not sure about invading Venezuela tho.


And our president has always been an open supporter of Chavez, but he shut the fuck up during elections, got elected, and now cannot even talk bad about maduro because well he hates the right wing, not the left wing dictators.

So he announced that the Cartel de los Soles does not exist, and that he will support Venezuela “or the great Colombia” in case US decided to invade. So he just deployed military in the frontier just to “mitigate” drug trafficking and that should be enough to tell the US “look we are fighting drug trafficking”

t6_macci

My guess is they're rushing to remove all the most direct proof they can of the direct collaboration between cartels and the Venezuelan military, and may be pretend they're actually fighting traffic, but they're not convincing anyone 

BOT_Negro

The US cannot invade Venezuela. Iraq required 295k  thousands of boots in the ground, Venezuela is more than twice that an there are only 4k Marines deployed in that flotilla.

You DON'T HOLD TERRITORY, YOU DON'T CHANGE REGIME. A fine example of that is Afghanistan.

What Colombia is doing in a very understated way is to close the Venezuelan border effectively, as Maduro's government will go guns blazing versus any internal dissent (and his opposition is stupid enough to do so). So Petro is trying to avoid another humanitarian crisis in his border while saving face.

Maduro also does not want people to leave the country, as he is forcibly recruiting population to his personal militia (got first hand reports of this happening in Oriente region).

NOW, I read somewhere that Russia is in talks for deploying military bases and ICMBs in Venezuela, THAT could be a shitshow and trigger a full fledged invasion and no country will support thm, not even the Russians.

EDIT: 160K troops

tokumotion

&gt; Can anyone in Colombia or Venezuela explain me what's really going on with the troops on their borders?

I can try

&gt; So, I'm trying to figure this out:

ok

&gt; The USA raises the useless bounty against Maduro and then moves in a flotilla too big to counter drug smuggling but too small to actually invade Venezuela

it’s effective for cargo ships and small vessels. which 90% of Venezuelan drugs are sent via sea because… duh and our main costumer for drugs is Europe, not the US. So, also unsure what the point is. 


&gt; Then Maduro, tries (and possibly fails) to raise a part-time militia and then, rather than make a show of his (admittedly inexistent) sea defenses, moves troops to the border with Colombia, even though he's threatened from the North. I presume the troops have orders to look like they are fighting drug smugglers even though they are protecting them and even though the USA moved to threaten Maduro and not drug dealers.

Not sure, but I am more confused at what a militia could do at all against a naval force. Different terrain; different war tactics and all

&gt; So Petro then moves even more troops to the same area, but as a gesture of friendship to Venezuela?

Petro is a bootlicker for guerrilla-like people. Pretty sure he is a joke even within socialist circles but yeah he prob did that 

&gt; Is everyone bluffing? Or do you guys around there have better insights?

The US is bluffing. Venezuela and Colombia are doing a friendly military gesture. 

But yeah it’s stupid.

LoooolGotcha

Trump wants to divert attention from the Epstein files.

Venezuela wants to look like it's ready to fight.

Petro is a woke moron, coming April he will be history in Colombia.

shaniqua-mcnamara

B34appy

It's a little long. But here I go. 

Colombia shares a long border with Venezuela, and specially in Santander-Táchira region operates no less than four distinct armed groups. EMC, farc, eln, clan del golfo, epl. They make money with drug trafficking, kidnapping and anything legal or illegal that makes money. They are at war with each other and with the Colombian army. 

Those groups moves between Venezuela and colombia, they don't combat the Venezuelan army and don't seem to do extortion and violent stuff in Venezuela (that I know of). Venezuela also  have their own criminal gangs in the area. 

The other aspect was "El cerco diplomático" where latam countries made some kind of blockade, no diplomatic relations or any relation for nine years, it only made the criminal groups stronger. The current government normalized diplomatic relations and wants to fight with those groups along with the Venezuelan army. The opposition wants for us to join in a war against Venezuela. 

There is a third group of mercenaries, right wing politicians and exiled Venezuelans who want to kill Maduro and are ready to take any opportunity, they tried with American mercenaries a few years ago but they caught them.

Today, with trump/rubio and the naval exercise this area needs to be strictly controlled, Venezuela sent 15k troops, Colombia already have 20k in the area but the irregular groups there are still in control they use drones and modern warfare, they took down an helicopter with a Drone just last week. 

for Venezuelans troops on the border are needed to avoid groups of mercenaries to enter Venezuela, colombia has troops to continue our war while avoiding misunderstandings false flags, attacks on civilians. 

We have currently a left leaning president but we also have a very extreme right wing that really wants to start a war with Maduro and are doing everything they can to avoid coordination between Colombia and Venezuela and create a crisis. United States senators also threaten Colombian president to put him in jail if there is any coordination. 

So the troops are there to protect the border and civilian population. in the scenario that Trump do ANYTHING we expect millions of Venezuelans who will cross the border and generate a humanitarian crisis. It will be a disaster.

Snoo_57113

1. Yea, everyone is bluffing.

2. This move is mostly to shift the attention away from internal problems. In the case of Colombia, the Venezuelan border is a place with a lot of influence from guerrillas (what is coincidence, isn't it? /s) so Petro's movement of sending more troops is likely a way to cover the fact that his attempt of peace with the armed groups was a failure and now violence in the region is the highest in the last 20 years; while licking Maduro's ass so he dosen't get mad at him for reinforcing the border

DG-MMII

[deleted]

maburro should take the room temperature challenge

Estrelleta44

Hey OP, Venezuelan ex-pat and OSINT analyst here! It's much more complicated than most people realize so bare with me and you're welcome to go down the rabbit hole on this one. 

Venezuela is in bed with Cuba, Iran, China, Russia, N. Korea, the socialist party in Spain, the guerrillas in Colombia, mostly FARC, the current Colombian president, the Sinaloa Cartel and Hezbollah, among others, and it has been allowing for the above players to infiltrate the western hemisphere and use Venezuela as a hotspot for money laundering, drug trafficking, arms trafficking, terrorist militias training camps, and over the years intel sources indicate that at one point or the other Chavez and Iran may have found uranium deposits in the Perijá pennynsula near the colombo-venezuelan border. Essentially Venezuela is being set up as a launching pad of potential insurgencies in America's backyard. This has been going on since Chavez became president in the late 90's. Now, in addition to all that, the Venezuelan regime runs its own cartel, El Cartel de Los Soles, Nicolás Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores, Diosdado Cabello, Padrino López, Tareck el Aissami, and other high ranking government and military officials are all known cartel bosses. Think of a 3rd world Caribbean paradise gone wild wild west in a matter of two and a half decades. 

Now, you have to understand the dynamics in Venezuela to get a better picture of why most Venezuelans are for the US cleaning house in Venezuela. When Chavez took over Venezuela was the 5th largest economy in the world, the largest oil resources known to men, gold, silver, diamond and gemstones in abundance as natural resources and the potential of becoming the Dubai of Latin American, where if things had been managed correctly, he really could have abolished poverty and hunger, but instead they stole everything, the allowed crime to go rampant to chase away the middle and higher class because they knew that's their biggest opposition, which essentially led to the first wave of immigration, mostly to the US and Europe, and as things got worse and the regional dynamics changed, the lower class started immigrating illegally to other countries across LatAm, sometimes walking as far as Argentina, and when the US opened its borders, many decent people from Venezuela also came into the US, but Venezuela's narco-regime decided to infiltrate the US with criminals and insurgents, they also gave many middle eastern nationals Venezuelan identities so they can pose as immigrants from none-muslim countries, and I have heard and met at least 4 'venezuelan' Muslims who barely speak Spanish and one who'd never even been there. Oh! Almost forgot! The entire military and intelligence apparatus in Venezuela is being ran and supervised by Cuba, Russia and China, and all three also have heavy military presence in Venezuelan territory as well. 

In addition to all that, the Maduro regime forcefully disappears people, incarcerates opposition figures, tortures students, judges, innocents. So many youth have been shot by his thugs point blank in the streets for wanting a change. It's sick. Maduro and his combo are POSs that deserve to rot, who should be forced to return every penny they stole from the people of Venezuela. Bunch of incompetent animals with the IQ of cockroaches. Do your homework please. Venezuela needs a change. Trump is doing the right thing, and I have nothing to gain by saying this because I don't live in the US and certainly don't vote in US elections. I have a brother and his kids there and I fear more for them under the regime than I do if the US takes action, he's also pointed out that the alleged militias Maduro is calling are a bunch of undisciplined street thugs with zero training, many are old or clueless and the second they see one US soldier they'll abandon ship.

HannaRC

Spotted in Colombia. Presented without comment

https://preview.redd.it/48fryh745zlf1.jpeg?width=4284&amp;format=pjpg&amp;auto=webp&amp;s=ff7688c10c053493214830983b437a348d5d3bf8

Complex_Judgment_296

No, Trump won't invade and declare all-out war on Venezuela right now.

No, no country in Latin America will help the Maduro regime. Brazil and Colombia, which could be, have already had poor relations with Maduro since the last election, let alone everyone else.

Holy-Stone

Guys, Lula doesn’t give a fuck about Maduro and contrary to what people here are implying, they’re not on good terms at all lmao.

Edit: why is this sub so obsessed with war?

Special_H_

bastardnutter

https://preview.redd.it/ymjendvbu2kf1.jpeg?width=224&amp;format=pjpg&amp;auto=webp&amp;s=d3aba2cf4fe236707da7de3ac2db226747866a17

Picolete

SpecialistAlfalfa390

Rephrase it to - are Venezuela's neighbors concerned about an actual war.

_azul_van

the_latin_joker

Taco man just wants to change the subject from Epstein. 

He’s also a racist, felon and rapist.

Acceptable-Peace-69

Most probably it will stay as minor/superficial displays of power in Mexico's case. Going to war against your biggest trade partner is stupid, even for Trump 

ApprehensiveBasis262

Petro will tweet out a long, vague, nearly incoherent paragraph talking about Simon Bolivar and Aureliano Buendía and then nothing will happen

Andromeda39

etancrazynpoor

thefrostman1214

He'll probably fire missiles and drones at Venezuela to try and stir up a civil war, but I doubt he'll do a ground invasion that could get gringos killed.

Saltimbanco_volta

The revolutionary government is ready for the challenge, as shown [here](https://www.instagram.com/p/DNiuRm7tqLW/?igsh=MWRpbnc2bDM3YWR2dQ==) and [here](https://www.instagram.com/reel/DMVj_y-Odlu/?igsh=MW01MG0zZDk2MDk2bw%3D%3D).

elmerkado

In Mexico I don't think so it wouldn't be clever, we wiill follow our current strategy negotiate and try to get along with our north neighbor 

That is ghe government has been dealing with Trump since tje beginning and I think I has been working more or less until now

But I don't know other latin american countries.

CuteNatMx

What is this "we" you're talking about. Let the two assholes fuck each other up, and leave the rest of us alone. Even the fool in Colombia will probably steer clear of this, or at least he'll be forced to by other people in government.

lojaslave

Wars aren't popular, and even DT followers will oppose, the approbation numbers don't look any good.

SomeonefromPanama

People think this means boots on the ground, but its more possible that they will drone strike and launch missiles to the top 20 most powerful people of the regime in the span of 20 minutes. I like that option

Embarrassed-Gur-3419

I'm against anything that might produce more venezuelan immigrants

lordlydancer

I don't think there will be war (for now), but I think more military coups are likely

The US empire is beginning to fall, countries are becoming less dependent on them, BRICS is making them shit their pants, etc. And to try to return to normality, they will try to treat us even more like a backyard. They want and have already said they want Venezuela's oil, rare earths in Brazil, etc...

Accomplished-Boss351

A war in Mexico would be disastrous for the US. Not because the cartels would put up a good fight, but because of the optics and the economic consequences back in the US. The mere announcement of tariffs tanked their sock market. A war with the US's largest trading partner? It's a recipe for disaster.

Ponchorello7

Who is we? I for one welcome a full scale invasion of Nicaragua. Get those mofos out of power.

background_action92

Dadodo98

"we"? Whats this WE stuff. WE have bills to pay, food to buy for the family, rent money. We, we got real problems. Trump ain't invading Venezuela. It's all theater.

catsoncrack420

No. This is all for domestic politics. It's race-baiting and pretext for his ongoing authoritarian takeover of the government. He has access to emergency powers, but in order to use them, he needs an emergency and an enemy. His staunchest supporters are far right white Christian nationalists, so Hispanic people generally and Venezuelans, Mexicans, and Central Americans in particular are a great target. It has been an extremely successful strategy. Through the Republican majority in Congress, Congress has willingly surrendered their powers to him and have supported his claims of national emergency based on national security.  The right wing majority on the supreme court have also declared a lot of what he's doing legal after the fact.  He doesn't need these problems he prattles on about to go awau (to the extent that they even are problems). He needs them to stay so that he can keep using them as pretext. This is why during the Biden administration he badgered Republicans in Congress to scuttle a border security law. He explicitly said it was because he planned on running on it.

As it stands now, I think the most likely outcome is sporadic and arbitrary troop mobilizations to the US-Mexican border any time he needs to change the public discourse in the US (for example, discourse about his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein). I don't think we'll see anything more than complaining and saber rattling toward Venezuela. All of that said, Donald Trump is unpredictable and stupid. There are a lot of idiotic, cruel, and illegal things I thought he'd never do but he has done.

EagleCatchingFish

Who is we? It would be Venezuela in that case.

JYanezez

You must be speaking French, because im only hearing Oui, Oui, Oui

peanut_the_scp

No country in Latin America is going to go to war with the US military, CIA, etc to protect Maduro. Lula and Petro will cry about losing their dictator buddy, and then do nothing else about it

Haunting-Detail2025

No.

This is the third big show of force from Trump. The two previous didn't amount to anything.

Besides, do you think Brazil is going to step ahead for Venezuela?

mauricio_agg

American invasion would only improve Venezuela . 

Radiant-Ad-4853

I do believe trump will launch an invasion on Venezuela right after he wins a Nobel peace prize. He loves oil, and Venezuela is a easy target.

nugurimt

Most Latin American governments would be happy to see Maduro toppled. His criminal government is a headache for the whole region.

Brave_Ad_510

Nothings going to happen.

Trump is doing a big show a force for the rest of Latin America, for what purpose? Who knows. It’s just a waste of everyone’s time and money. 

If anything this will push more countries towards BRICS in my opinion.

Gamab1492

Brazil and Colombia maybe, but most likely not, the other countries want nothing to do with Venezuela and all have more important matters to attend to, Bolivia is in the middle of a political crisis since last year, here in Argentina we are trying to fix our economy, Peru is alright but I'm sure they don't want nothing to do with Colombia and Venezuela, since their last president whom attempted a coup was close to them and they recently had troubles with Colombia due to an island

Enzopastrana2003

Winter_Barracuda9508

Trump's threats are as intimidating to nations as McAfee is to viruses.

Say41Plz

He didn't even got full support.  **from his own base** when striked Iran. I don't really think he is gonna be able to go that far there is no real reason for an invasion. But then again there was no reason to antagonize Canada so much either.

Thiphra

sum_r4nd0m_gurl

Only so we can’t vote in the next election

ladymouserat

Wijnruit

Mister_Taco_Oz

For an actual war youd need two sides capable of defending their side and attacking the other. Venezuela under this regime has neither.

5ben2

Tensions escalate between the US and Venezuela following a military operation against drug trafficking, raising fears of military conflict and narco-terrorism concerns.

US-Venezuela Tensions Over Drug Trafficking

Why This Matters

Public Sentiment Summary

Highlighted Comments

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What the people want