It is more than curious that a US Naval Armada recently appeared unexpectedly off the Venezuelan coast in South America with no official notice by President Trump’s Administration.
Normal procedure would have obligated the sudden presence of up to eight Navy destroyers including one nuclear submarine along with 4,500 troops (including two thousand US Marines), 1,200 missiles and air assets pointed toward Venezuela to have required a basic explanation to the Venezuelan government.
Such behavior would be unexpected by any President although Donald Trump has not exactly measured up to being the foreign policy ‘peace president’ that many voters had anticipated. Since inauguration, Trump’s foreign policy continues to lack a humble deferential touch but rather struts as if the American Empire was still the great hegemon of the planet, unanswerable to any other nation.
For instance, one immediate fluke in Trump’s parliamentary repertoire was his promise to immediately end the war in Ukraine which never, more than eight months later, materialized. Instead, the Administration’s first priority was a bombing attack on the Houthis in Yemen, most likely the poorest country on earth. Yemen was protesting the Zionist genocidal campaign on the Palestinians in Gaza which, to date, Trump, has declined to speak out against Israel’s slaughter of thousands of civilians.
Despite the Noble Peace Prize endorsement by Israel’s world famous war criminal, the ‘peace president’ has continued to fail to inspire a peaceful world in his campaign to win the Prize. Almost immediately after admitting defeat in Yemen while spending $ 1 Billion on weapons, the US aided Israel’s unprecedented attack on Iran by bombing three Iran nuclear processing facilities. Whether that bombing campaign accomplished its ultimate goal of nuclear ‘obliteration’ remains problematic.
Meanwhile, Trump’s oft-stated promise to end the war in Ukraine continues to fail to achieve its objective as the President remains blissfully unaware of his own executive authority to end the funding and solicitation of weapons to Ukraine. While decrying a continuation of ‘the killing’ in Ukraine, Trump has agreed to ‘sell’ weapons to NATO which will then provide those weapons directly to Ukraine; thus ensuring that the killing continues.
Continuing his warrior ethos, the President has most recently redefined the US Department of Defense as the Department of War with an Executive Order – sure to be a winner with the Noble Committee.
“I think it’s a much more appropriate name, especially in light of where the world is right now. We have the strongest military in the world. We have the greatest equipment in the world. We have the greatest manufacturers of equipment by far. There’s nobody to even compete,”
The President continued “We won the first World War, we won the Second World War, we won everything before that and in between. And then we decided to go woke and we changed the name to Department of Defense.” The President’s recollection is somewhat faulty as Russia has been credited with bringing WW II to an end while the US has not ‘won’ a war since the 1940’s.
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Back to Venezuela: When CBS News initially inquired why three US Navy destroyers were being sent to Venezuela, CBS Senior National Correspondent Charlie D’Agata was told by Administration officials that “it was strictly a White House decision, not necessarily a military decision.”
D’Agata reported that the warships would depart for Venezuela ‘in the next few days to combat threats from Latin American drug cartels” and would “not rule out US troops on the ground.”
Meanwhile White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt verified the Armada’s impending arrival and that ‘the president has been very clear and consistent” that he is prepared to use “every element of American power to stop drugs from flooding into our country and to bring those responsible to justice.”
Leavitt added that “The Maduro regime is not the legitimate government of Venezuela. It is a narco-terror cartel. Maduro is a fugitive head of this cartel who has been indicted in the United States for trafficking drugs into the country.” Leavitt offered no evidence to confirm the Administration’s charge about Maduro.
Even prior to arrival of the Naval armada, the US Dept. of Justice and Secretary of State announced a $50 million reward for information leading to the arrest and/or conviction of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro for violating U.S. narcotics laws. It is unclear why US narcotic laws are the legal basis for the international arrest of a non-US citizen.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, while offering no evidence, commented that “Nicolas Madro is an indicted drug trafficker in the United States and he is a fugitive from American justice.”
There has been no evidence that Madro is leader of the mythical Cartel de Los Soles or that the Cartel even exists.
Within days after the Armada’s arrival, Trump announced that the US had fired on a small motor boat in international waters and killed its eleven occupants who were accused of being Tren de Aragua narco-terrorists.
“… just over the last few minutes, we literally shot out a boat, a drug carrying boat, lot of drugs in that boat,” Trump bragged to reporters. “We have a lot of drugs pouring into our country, coming in for a long time, these came out of Venezuela, and coming out very heavily from Venezuela,” he added. “A lot of drugs in that boat. And you’ll be seeing that, and you’ll be reading about that. It just happened moments ago.”
While the Trump administration provided no details of Venezuela’s importation of drugs into the US, what kind of drugs or who were the boat occupants or, as has now has been revealed, the boat was returning to Venezuelan shore.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated “Instead of interdicting it, on the president’s orders, we blew it up – and it will happen again. Not just narco-traffickers; these are narco-terrorists. We’re not just going to hunt for drug dealers with little fast boats and say let’s try to arrest them. No, we’re going to.. the president has said that he wants to wage war on them because they have been waging war on us or thirty years and no one has responded.”
Rubio rejected a UN report that identifies 87% of South American drug running occurring through Colombia and Ecuador rather than Venezuela since it is Colombia which grows the coco while Ecuador does the illegal imports with fentanyl crossing into the US via the Mexican cartels.
“I don’t care what the UN says. He’s a fugitive from U.S. justice indicted by a New York grand jury. He’s not the legitimate leader of Venezuela,” Rubio added that the order to “blow up” the vessel rather than interdict it came from President Trump.
Rubio further added that Trump is “going to use the full power of America and the full might of the US to take on and eradicate these drug cartels no matter where they’re operating from and no matter how long they’ve been able to act with impunity,“
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth explicitly warned that Maduro, acting as the kingpin of a narco state with a $50 million indictment “should be worried” after the recent boat bombing. Further, in a Sept. 4th interview at Ft. Benning, Hegseth added “we smoked a drug boat and there’s eleven narco terrorists at the bottom of the ocean and when other people try to do that, they’re going to meet the same fate.”
Maduro responded that US action was an “extravagant, unjustifiable, immoral, absolutely criminal and bloody threat” and that his country was at “maximum preparedness” for possible U.S. aggression.
Several days later, on Truth Social, Rubio’s prediction came true as President Trump escalated US search for Venezuelan drugsters with a second motor boat attack killing three Venezuelans in international waters. There was no identification of who were the individuals transporting ‘illegal narcotics’ on the 1300 mile trip to the US. Missing were any details about specific narcotics or how the boat occupants were identified as ‘terrorists”.
Venezuelan Minister of Interior Diosdado Cabella denied that any of the victims in the two boat attacks were Tren de Araqua and inquired how the US determined there were drugs on board and why none of the occupants were arrested.
In response, Maduro stated that relations with the US are “completely broken, destroyed due to US military and political aggression” adding that regime change is the true goal with drug allegations a mere façade for US military intimidation.
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The Armada’s presence in Venezuelan waters is not the first indication of the Trump Administration’s relentless pursuit of labelling an alleged narco-drug presence or its President Maduro as the lead narco-terrorist.
While vigilant US pursuit of Venezuelan oil can be attributed to its presence as the world’s largest known reserves of oil and natural gas, there is no requirement for Venezuela or any other nation to obey a US Presidential Executive Order.
US interest in Venezuela can be attributed to a series of self-serving Presidential Executive Orders which include numerous economic sanctions at least one against Venezuela’s State-owned Energy Office (the PdVSA) as well as sanctions aimed at creating economic and political destabilization. Beginning with Obama’s EO 13692 (March 5, 2015) was followed by EO 13808 (8-24-t 2017), EO 13827 (5-21-2018), EO 13835 (05-21-2018), EO 13589 (11-1-2018), EO 13850 (11-2-2019) and EO 13884 (8-5-2019).
The most recent US Executive Order filed by the Trump Administration, was EO 14245 (3-24-2025) entitled “Imposing Tariffs on Countries Importing Venezuelan Oil (directly or indirectly)” several months prior to the flotilla’s arrival.
All Executive Orders specifically cite that the “regime of Nicolas Maduro poses an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States.”
These are the words of a declining Empire, once accustomed to unquestioned obedience from almost every other nation on the planet. The intent of US sanctions has been to destroy Venezuela’s energy industry and to act as agent for Venezuela’s resources..
Meaning exactly what its title implies, the US believes it is entitled to make demands on every other country, the EO states that “On or after April 2, 2025, a tariff of 25 percent may be imposed on all goods imported into the United States from any country that imports Venezuelan oil, whether directly from Venezuela or indirectly (through third parties).”
While the Administration has not informed which countries have been cited; as of early 2025, some countries which import Venezuelan oil include the US, India, Spain, Cuba, Turkey with China being the largest importer at over 50% with 503k bpd as well as other lesser imports to Brazil, Russia, Italy, Singapore and Vietnam.
In addition, no doubt taking its lead from the US, the EU and UK have also filed multiple sanctions against Venezuela promising an arms embargo, travel restrictions and an asset freeze.
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Despite home to the world’s largest proven oil reserves and the fourth largest natural gas reserves, Venezuela has never been able to profit from its own natural resources given its decades-long struggle against US hegemony of crippling sanctions and economic instability.
Venezuela’s oil exports have been targeted since at least the 1999 election of Hugo Chavez who denied US energy demands with increased political turmoil. By 2019, imposition of US crushing sanctions brought threats of election fraud and regime change; further cultivating civil instability, economic collapse and an unsustainable government.
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In an undeniable sign that the Old World Order is crumbling, China solidified its support with Venezuela by identifying an opportunity to build a more resilient relationship. As a reliable exporter of Venezuela’s heavy crude, China offered the Maduro government a cooperative partnership and exposure to an expanding multipolar world with its broad global markets and trade infrastructure, cooperative loans with a generous repayment plan and an investment strategy of diplomatic opportunities and economic stability as Venezuela escaped the isolation of decades of US strangling sanctions and political threats.
What the Trump Administration was not counting on was Venezuela’s relationship with China’s relationship whose government responded immediately to the US Navy’s heavy-handed presence off the Venezuelan coast. In response to American pressure, the Chinese sent a hospital ship into the Caribbean as geopolitical pressure mounts on the Maduro presidency.
Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning responded to questions about the naval deployment.
“China opposes any move that violates the purposes and principles of the U.N. Charter and a country’s sovereignty and security,” Ning said. “We oppose the use or threat of force in international relations and the interference of external forces in Venezuela’s internal affairs under any pretext.”
In other words, it may be expected that China intends to protect its investment in Venezuelan oil.
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However, there has been no agenda or military strategy provided about how the Trump Administration will interdict drugs coming into the US and, as Daniel Davis pointed out, ‘there may be no strategy.’ Nor has there been any clarification regarding US strategy to stop drug imports at the US southern border. As well as an explanation how targeting the boat was not a civil rights violation.
From his X account: “Vance Defends Lethal US Strike on alleged Venezuelan Cartel Vessel
“Vice President James David Vance has staunchly defended a U.S. military strike on a Venezuelan boat suspected of drug trafficking, which killed 11 people in the Caribbean. The operation targets cartels linked to fentanyl distribution, with Vance calling it the “highest and best use” of military forces amid America’s escalating drug war. Critics, including Senator Rand Paul, condemn the action as potential war crimes for bypassing trials, fueling heated debates on social media and international law.”
In response to Vance, Sen. Rand Paul said in a statement to Newsweek “The recent drone attack on a small speedboat over 2,000 miles from our shore without identification of the occupants or the content of the boat is in no way part of a declared war, and defies our longstanding Coast Guard rules of engagement.”
There has been no indication that Venezuela has any interest in a war even as reports that ten F35’s have been sent to Puerto Rico further escalate an unnecessary volatile situation. There is no logic for the US to open a new military front as a power shift has moved Venezuela into an economic partnership with China based on cooperation and mutual trust.
Meanwhile, the Oxford Dictionary of Contemporary History describes the Noble Peace Prize as ‘the most prestigious prize in the world” to be awarded to the individual who has “done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses.“[7] The question remains whether the threat of armed conflict, regime change and ts ensuing i violence are sufficient measure to meet the Noble Peace Prize committee criteria.
Renee Parsons has been an elected public official in Colorado, an environmental lobbyist with Friends of the Earth and a staff member in the US House of Representative in Washington, DC. Before its demise, she was also a member of the ACLU’s Florida State Board of Directors and President of the ACLU Treasure Coast Chapter. She is a regular contributor to Global Research.