For Sanho Tree, a researcher at the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS), based in Washington, the concentration of U.S. military forces in the Caribbean this Monday “has little to do with anti-drug policy.”
The expert, who has directed the Drug Policy Project at IPS since 1998, answered questions from Prensa Latina on current issues. Especially the current scenario of growing tension between the United States and Venezuela.
Washington blames Caracas for drug trafficking to the northern country. However, the military historian and diplomat also stated that most of the cocaine that passes through Venezuela is destined for Europe and Africa. About three-quarters of the cocaine destined for the United States comes from the Pacific coast, not the Caribbean.
It is in the Caribbean where Pentagon forces have destroyed most of some twenty vessels. Resulting in the deaths of at least 83 people under the pretext of fighting drugs. When asked about these deaths in international waters of “narco-terrorists.” As the United States describes them, Sanho emphasized that “narco-terrorism” does not exist. It is a terrifying political construct designed, he said, to dehumanize the people Trump wants to exterminate.
Al Capone and his Mafia associates resorted to extreme violence to protect their market during Prohibition. Also we don’t call them “narco-terrorists” because that doesn’t help us understand the nature of the problem or find a solution, he pointed out. This policy he said, seeks to normalize Trump’s ability to carry out arbitrary extrajudicial killings.
If Trump and Stephen Miller (Deputy Director of the White House Policy Cabinet) manage to normalize these killings in international Waters. I believe they will try to implement them domestically as well, he stated. Indicating that Attorney General Pam Bondi “has already declared that they intend to do with Antifa what they did with the cartels.”
This Monday, the U.S. government’s designation of the alleged Cartel of the Suns, which the White House claims is led by President Nicolás Maduro. As a foreign terrorist organization takes effect, potentially foreshadowing a new phase in this escalation of maximum pressure against Venezuela.
However, Sanho was emphatic: “There is no such thing as the ‘Cartel of the Suns.’ It is not a real organization. It is a colloquial expression dating back to the 1990s.” Referring more to corruption networks that facilitate illicit activities.
It wouldn’t be surprising, he commented, if military and police officers in the region accepted bribes from drug traffickers. Just as American politicians, police officers, and judges accepted them from bootleggers during Prohibition (in effect in the United States between January 19th, 1920 and December 6th, 1933).
He pointed out that it would be foolish to attack Venezuela for its oil, but Trump gets crazy ideas in his head and won’t let go. He recalled that Trump revealed his obsession with Venezuelan oil in 2017 and has often spoken about how the United States should have seized that wealth in Iraq. “An attempt to seize Venezuelan oil could go terribly wrong,” he predicted.
The researcher wondered why the United States would do something so reckless. He explained that “there is no longer an interagency process through which different departments and stakeholders can contribute information and issue warnings. Now, every decision revolves around the ‘Mad King’ and his desires. Unlike his first term, Trump faces no opposition within his own administration,” he opined.
Regarding the threat to Venezuela, its consequences for Latin America, and the Monroe Doctrine. The editor of the investigative journalism magazine CovertAction Quarterly emphasized: “I believe in defending the sovereignty of smaller nations, no matter where they are located.”
Anti-imperialism is not just about opposing the Monroe Doctrine in the Western Hemisphere, but about opposing imperialism worldwide, he stated. And in response to another question about President Trump’s renaming of the Department of Defense to the Department of War without congressional authorization, he clarified that “it is unconstitutional.”
“An act of Congress is required,” Sanho Tree explained. All Secretary Pete Hegseth has done is turn the War Department into “an informal nickname,” he concluded.
With information from Prensa Latina
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