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Note: My article last week on U.S. military deployments proximate to Venezuela was centered on objective reporting. This article should be read in its separate opinion-analysis context.
It is indisputable that drug cartels originating in Venezuela have been responsible for the deaths of numerous U.S. citizens and residents via acts of criminal violence on U.S. soil. Drug smuggling and the trade it supports fuel misery and broader criminality in neighborhoods across the United States. The Venezuelan cartels also retain connections with various organized criminal groups, including terrorist groups, that threaten U.S. lives and interests. These cartels are either tolerated or directly supervised by Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro.
For all these reasons, President Donald Trump‘s proportionate use of military force against the cartels is lawful, moral, and necessary.
The Trump administration has authorized at least four strikes against cartel boats smuggling drugs out of Venezuela. As CNN reported this week, the Justice Department issued a legal finding supporting Trump’s authority to use military force against the cartels. The legal basis for that finding is that the cartels pose an “imminent threat” to Americans. I assume that the finding also notes the unwillingness of Maduro’s government to take any serious steps to confront these cartels, and the failure of prior efforts to secure U.S. borders comprehensively against the smuggling of illegal drugs.
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Yes, the ultimate source of America’s drug crisis is not the cartels per se, but Americans. Whether through desperation or a desire for entertainment, American drug users fail to recognize that by consuming illegal drugs, they aren’t simply endangering themselves; they are fueling an illegal market that produces extraordinary violence, corruption, and criminality. But as commander in chief, Trump has both the authority and the obligation to take action against drug cartels that threaten American lives and the well-being of our communities.
The Venezuelan cartels of concern, and Trump’s particular attention, are the Cartel of the Suns and Tren de Aragua.
The relationship between the Cartel of the Suns and Maduro’s regime is clear. The cartel operates with the direct support of the Venezuelan military, which enables its operations with the provision of resources and impunity. In fact, the word “Suns” in the cartel’s name is a reference to the epaulets worn by senior Venezuelan military officers! The name is apt. The Cartel of the Suns operates as an extension of Maduro’s regime, using its state-sanctioned drug operations to enrich itself. These riches are then distributed upward through a patronage network that extends from senior military ranks to the highest levels of Maduro’s regime. Even as his people struggle in terrible poverty, the drug trade has made Maduro and his cronies very rich. Venezuela might have the world’s largest proven oil reserves, but, as with many socialist leaders, such as Albania’s Edi Rama, it’s easier to deal in drugs than engage in legitimate business.
To be clear, Maduro’s regime is a direct party to the Cartel of the Suns organization. And while the cartel’s U.S.-based operations are very limited, it provides a key source of narcotics to other U.S.-based criminal entities, which then distribute those drugs across the nation. Indeed, one of the cartel’s key partners is the Sinaloa cartel, erstwhile the most powerful cartel in Mexico. And again, the U.S. drug distribution trade is extraordinarily lucrative and, in turn, a key source of criminal violence. The Cartel of the Suns also retains very close links to terrorist groups such as the Colombian FARC organization.
Then there is the Tren de Aragua organization.
The Trump administration has exaggerated the links between Maduro’s regime and Tren de Aragua. Still, Tren de Aragua’s harm to U.S. security is hardly debatable.
This harm was underscored last year over the group’s tyrannical control of an apartment complex in Aurora, Colorado. That story became national news during the presidential campaign. But that was just the tip of the iceberg. Tren de Aragua is also responsible for significant violent crime far beyond Colorado. Alongside its drug trade activity, the group is responsible for numerous murders. A DOJ indictment of 27 gang members in April listed their involvement in the forcible sex trafficking of young women and numerous armed robberies.
Do these acts constitute an imminent threat to American communities? I would argue that the answer is a clear “yes.” And on the associated question as to whether U.S. law enforcement efforts are either remotely sufficient or practical in confronting these cartels, the answer is obviously “no.” The drug trade on U.S. soil and violent criminal contests for control over that trade remain rampant.
It is, then, important that we don’t view the Trump administration’s actions against the cartels in a strategic vacuum. As the Washington Examiner has reported, the Trump administration is also engaged in a range of covert and overt actions against various Mexican drug cartels. In Mexico, Trump appears to want to persuade President Claudia Sheinbaum to engage in more robust law enforcement efforts against the cartels by pressuring her to believe that he will take unilateral action if she fails to do so.
As a drug kingpin, that’s not an option with Maduro.
Of course, it might seem that the occasional U.S. military strike against a drug-smuggling vessel and a few cartel members is of limited utility in the grand scale of drug smuggling. But while that’s true to a degree, these strikes don’t simply eliminate specific drug actors; they generate significant additive challenges for the cartels’ operations.
With the prospect of surprise attacks on their personnel, boats, and other interests, the cartels must take far greater security precautions in and around their previously safe-haven Venezuelan territories. That means time-consuming, stressful, and expensive measures to avoid U.S. military detection, to diversify smuggling routes, to reduce drug loads on any one boat (to mitigate losses), and likely to increase payments to cartel members who are now in the firing line. Trump has thus introduced what the military refers to as “friction” to the cartels’ operations.
This is not to say that Trump’s use of force deserves limitless support. My view is that Trump has the expansive power to authorize military action that can be credibly argued as necessary to defend U.S. lives or interests against an imminent threat. At least somewhat commensurate with the constitutionally questionable war powers resolution, I also believe Trump can authorize the use of force absent congressional authorization, as long as it remains limited, as in its current form, or does not continue beyond 60 days.
Regardless, public debate over Trump’s use of force against the cartels is warranted. After all, there is a growing probability of escalation. As the Washington Examiner reported last week, the U.S. military has deployed forces proximate to Venezuela on a scale and capability far beyond what is needed to simply strike the drug cartels, as Trump is doing. These U.S. forces are now oriented to provide for even the seizure of Venezuelan airports and ports should Trump order that action. Such a move would bring the U.S. into a de facto state of war with Maduro’s regime.
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Nevertheless, the Venezuelan cartels pose an imminent and continuing threat to American lives and the nation’s welfare. Trump has the authority and responsibility to contest that threat.
His bold but limited action deserves support.
