Venezuela and the US’s ‘failed’ war on drugs

Cocaine production in Venezuela is anaemic*. As a cocaine transit hub, it’s a bit player**. So why the US’s "kinetic strike" on September 3, 2025 on a boat of Venezuelan "narcoterrorists"? Critics suggest the answer may lie in how the long-running so-called "war on drugs" makes it easier for the United States to target its enemies, both at home and abroad. *United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime **US Drug Enforcement Agency.

The US, without providing evidence, accuses Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro of being a narcotics kingpin, which he denies. Currently, the Trump administration has deployed at least seven warships and a submarine to the southern Caribbean, seemingly the latest chapter in leveraging the "war on drugs" to further US government influence.

The "war on drugs" was ushered in by US President Richard Nixon in 1971. But a Nixon aide, John Ehrlichman, famously said it wasn’t about drugs at all, but rather about targeting Black people and critics of the Vietnam War.

President Ronald Reagan escalated Nixon’s war in the 1980s, with his wife Nancy as the face of the "Just Say No" campaign. In 1986, Congress passed the Anti-Drug Abuse Act, criticised as racist for imposing heavier jail terms on Black Americans. By 1997, 400,000 people were in prison for nonviolent drug offences, up from 50,000 in 1980.

But abroad, drug rules could be bent if it suited Washington. According to a Senate report, Panama’s Manuel Noriega built a "narcokleptocracy" in the 1980s with the knowledge of US officials. But since Panama had the Panama Canal, it served as a buffer against leftist fighters in Central America, and Noriega was tolerated — for a time.

Eventually, the US was forced to act. In 1985, a Noriega opponent was beheaded, followed by reports of money laundering and Colombian cocaine processing plants in Panama. The US indicted Noriega in 1988. The next year, President George HW Bush invaded Panama in Operation Just Cause to depose the one-time ally.

Over the years, the US has used the "war on drugs" to pressure Colombia, Peru, Bolivia, Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Panama, Haiti, and several Caribbean nations.

Colombian President Gustavo Petro has argued it is time for something different.

The day after the US military killed 11 people by bombing an alleged Venezuelan drug boat, the US secretary of state was in Ecuador to designate two drug gangs there as "terrorists". But crackdowns abroad fragment cartels, leading to more local violence. Bulked-up security forces abuse human rights. Disrupting cocaine production has led to a rise in fentanyl and methamphetamine. In short, the "war on drugs" appears without end.