Gramsci wrote: Mon Jan 05, 2026 6:41 am Maduro is not a drug trafficker. Almost all of the illegal opioids in the US are from China via Mexico.

This really is a deliberate distraction tactic from the Trump regime (let’s call a spade a spade here). Yes, there are Venezuelan gangs, but from what I know they’re more focused on people smuggling and racketeering than the drug trade. They do operate in the US but primarily to traffic Venezuelans into the country and then shake the down the communities already there.

llllllllllllllllllll wrote: Mon Jan 05, 2026 10:47 am You have to at least try to understand the history of the US and regime change in Latin America if you are to make sense of any current events you read in any of your usual sources. Who’s saying what, who’s not saying what, who published what, the context they give, etc, are all important.

Better yet, the CIA and the drug trade would be a great start. Just pick a continent.

Trump is in a position to accelerate or just throw the blanket off of a lot of devious shit that has been brewing for decades, but this isn’t quite as unprecedented as the mask off rhetoric may make it seem.

losthighway wrote: Mon Jan 05, 2026 8:06 am

Gramsci wrote: Mon Jan 05, 2026 6:41 am Maduro is not a drug trafficker. Almost all of the illegal opioids in the US are from China via Mexico.

This really is a deliberate distraction tactic from the Trump regime (let’s call a spade a spade here). Yes, there are Venezuelan gangs, but from what I know they’re more focused on people smuggling and racketeering than the drug trade. They do operate in the US but primarily to traffic Venezuelans into the country and then shake the down the communities already there.

You're right about fentanyl. But Venezuela has been a conduit for Colombian cocaine and it's not a stretch to think that Maduro has some of that in his financial portfolio. How that links to terrorism, I'm sure I don't know. Nor does it come anywhere close to justifying a military invasion in the minds of the sane.

Also kind of ironic given the Trump family's fairly public affection for the booger sugar.

losthighway wrote: Mon Jan 05, 2026 8:06 am

Gramsci wrote: Mon Jan 05, 2026 6:41 am Maduro is not a drug trafficker. Almost all of the illegal opioids in the US are from China via Mexico.

This really is a deliberate distraction tactic from the Trump regime (let’s call a spade a spade here). Yes, there are Venezuelan gangs, but from what I know they’re more focused on people smuggling and racketeering than the drug trade. They do operate in the US but primarily to traffic Venezuelans into the country and then shake the down the communities already there.

You're right about fentanyl. But Venezuela has been a conduit for Colombian cocaine and it's not a stretch to think that Maduro has some of that in his financial portfolio. How that links to terrorism, I'm sure I don't know. Nor does it come anywhere close to justifying a military invasion in the minds of the sane.

Also kind of ironic given the Trump family's fairly public affection for the booger sugar.

losthighway wrote: Mon Jan 05, 2026 8:06 am
But Venezuela has been a conduit for Colombian cocaine and it's not a stretch to think that Maduro has some of that in his financial portfolio.

cakes wrote: Mon Jan 05, 2026 10:55 am

llllllllllllllllllll wrote: Mon Jan 05, 2026 10:47 am You have to at least try to understand the history of the US and regime change in Latin America if you are to make sense of any current events you read in any of your usual sources. Who’s saying what, who’s not saying what, who published what, the context they give, etc, are all important.

Better yet, the CIA and the drug trade would be a great start. Just pick a continent.

Trump is in a position to accelerate or just throw the blanket off of a lot of devious shit that has been brewing for decades, but this isn’t quite as unprecedented as the mask off rhetoric may make it seem.

The bigger problem is that now Trump is emboldened to just take out any elected leader he wants from any country or just outright take over a country. The only question is, who's next? And it's probably not going to be isolated to Central and South America.