The southern Caribbean was back on the front burner as Venezuela and the US were engaged in a hot military clash that marries counter-narcotics operations with sovereignty issues. In an exercise of power similar to Cold War-era power display, the US Navy has stepped up its deployment off the Venezuelan coast, led by the amphibious assault ship USS Iwo Jima.
With three warships, over 4,500 sailors and Marines, the guided-missile cruiser (the USS Lake Erie) and the fast-attack submarine USS Newport News, the deployment is one of the biggest US presences in the region in years.
Washington justified the deployment by naming Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro and his inner circle publicly. US officials charge Maduro and Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello with running the Cartel de los Soles, a governing cocaine-trafficking cartel officially designated by the US as a terrorist organization.
The State Department went so far as to offer another $50 million reward for the arrest of Maduro and presented the operation as an anti-drug-cartel effort that has been active everywhere throughout the entire region of Latin America.
White House staff are of the view that the President will use all the tools at America’s command to the extent of stopping the trafficking of drugs and punishing those who are culpable. The operation does not fall short merely of Venezuela—it reaches as far as Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel and Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua.
But whether or not the Washington policy is legal is far from clear. Opponents would contend that deployment into Venezuelan waters by US naval assets in the absence of clear congressional approval is a violation of the War Powers Resolution of 1973. Some would contend that they are stretching the US letter of the law in an effort to qualify drug cartels as “terrorist organizations.” The reality, however, is that the threat of narco-terrorism leaves little leeway for fussy delicacy, and that immediate action must be taken to save American lives.
Caracas has moved quickly. Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino said there were increased naval patrols and drone monitoring along Venezuela’s Caribbean coast, with bigger ships employed in territorial waters closer to shore. 15,000 ground troops were deployed on the border with Colombia to battle armed units, and President Maduro called on millions of Venezuelans to join civilian militias.
Regime forces in Caracas are reporting the confiscation of more than 50 tonnes of drugs this year and claim to have closed workshops that manufacture narco-subs to smuggle cocaine across the Atlantic. Maduro insists that Venezuela proper does not cultivate coca or cocaine, as Colombia does. Technology is moving at the same pace as far as leading this confrontation is concerned, as troop deployment.
The US also increased its deployment of unmanned surface vehicles such as the Saildrone Voyager that cruise for months defending seagoing chokepoints. Equipped with sensors and secure links, robot ships detect suspicious vessels, note their coordinates, and provide intel to manned warships that are able to board them. Their deployment reflects a general trend toward mixed fleets, in which there are conventional warships and unmanned platforms, in which the US can extend its surveillance net without putting more bodies into it.
Diplomatic pressure is also building. Venezuela addressed itself directly to the United Nations and called on Washington to pull out its troops and ensure that nuclear missiles would not be planted in the Caribbean. Venezuelan domestic critics differ—some are polarized on US pressure on the drug lord, but others fear foreign intervention risks. Countries such as Mexico and Paraguay have appealed for restraint and shown respect for sovereignty and international law.
It is this confluence toseese the convergence of military strength, technology, and law to combat crime globally yet again. It re-stages classic wars, but with varying actors and moves constituting the war. At the end of it all, it would be less a matter of firepower but strategy, legitimacy, and both countries being able to negotiate a new and risky world.