Striking the cartel

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MYRNA BROWN, HOST: It’s Thursday, the 9th of October.

This is WORLD Radio and we thank you for joining us today! Good morning, I’m Myrna Brown.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard.

Up first, blowing up Venezuelan drug boats.

Last week, the Department of War confirmed it used lethal force against a vessel off the coast of Venezuela, the fourth reported airstrike since early September.

BROWN: President Trump has said the U.S. is at war with drug cartels, but is Congress on board?

World’s Carolina Lumetta has the story.

CAROLINA LUMETTA: When President Trump returned to office in January, he promised to halt the flow of illegal drugs by whatever means possible…with tariffs on China, Canada and Mexico, mass deportations, and now, airstrikes.

GIL GUERRA: …right now in the Republican Party, I think everyone is united, and everyone agrees that we need to take stronger action against drug cartels.

Gil Guerra is an Immigration Policy Analyst for the Niskanen Center, a centrist think tank in Washington. He says drugs may be the White House’s justification, but Venezuela is not the biggest culprit.

GUERRA: …the cartel outflow of drugs from Venezuela to the United States is relatively small when you compare it to other countries like Mexico or even like Colombia…

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime estimates that nearly 70% of the world’s cocaine comes from Colombia, and heads north to the United States through Mexico. Guerra says Venezuela serves as a smaller conduit for drugs through the Caribbean.

GUERRA: A lot of the staging for this really began in July of 2024 when Nicolás Maduro lost an election that he agreed to under U.S. arbitration.

Reporting on the ground says Maduro lost to challenger Edmundo Gonzalez by more than 40 points...but he held onto power anyway and cracked down on protests. The U.S. and other Western nations say Maduro’s ongoing leadership is illegitimate. After months of failed diplomacy on drug trafficking and immigration, Guerra says the White House lost patience with Maduro, and switched to hardball.

GUERRA: The United States has designated Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro as the head of the largest drug cartel within Venezuela known as Cartel de los Soles or cartel of the suns…

The State Department also raised a bounty for capturing Maduro to 50 million dollars. Deterring drug traffickers has also intensified. In August, the U.S. Military moved 8 warships and 10 F-35 fighter jets into the region.

RALBY: We have to be very careful, because the war on drugs is not actually a war.

Ian Ralby is an operational maritime lawyer…

RALBY: which means that I work on the law side with navies and coast guards, so I have worked on maritime security issues in roughly 100 countries.

Ralby told Washington Bureau producer Harrison Watters that the Coast Guard is responsible for catching drug traffickers in the Caribbean…for the government to bring to court. Firing missiles at suspected drug boats is a sea change.

RALBY: The whole regime of peacetime law and law enforcement at sea was completely rejected in this, these attacks. So this is not a drug enforcement operation.

Ralby says lethal action is generally allowed in cases of self defense against an imminent threat.

RALBY: Legally, the slow movement of drugs over time based on a consumer base is not a basis for that, that imminence, so there would have to have been something else.

So far, the White House has not identified that something else…and members of Congress are pushing for answers.

TIM KAINE: These military actions should be stopped unless authorized by Congress.

Democratic Senators Tim Kaine of Virginia and Adam Schiff of California briefed reporters yesterday…ahead of a resolution vote to halt further military action against a non-state actor. While the White House gave Congress a closed-door briefing after the airstrikes, Democrats say they left with more questions than answers.

Republican Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky told Bloomberg News he co-sponsored the War Powers Resolution because even drug traffickers deserve their day in court.

RAND PAUL: But we can't have a policy where we just blow up ships where we don't even know the people's names. It can't be the policy for drug interdiction either in the country or outside the country.

Other Republicans I spoke with said this resolution was unnecessary…including Missouri Senator Josh Hawley.

JOSH HAWLEY: If Thomas Jefferson can activate the military against pirates, I'm not sure how this is any different.

Republican Senator Mike Rounds of South Dakota sits on the Armed Services Committee…he told me that with the government shutdown ongoing, he expected many to vote no on the resolution.

ROUNDS: If we want to make modifications to the War Powers Act, we should do it when we're not in the middle of a politically charged environment.

But when I asked if the boat strikes concerned him, Senator Rounds said he couldn’t weigh in.

ROUNDS: We've asked for some additional specific information. I don't have that information yet.

Airstrikes have so far been limited to small vessels outside the twelve mile boundary of Venezuela’s sovereign waters. But with the State Department linking the Maduro government to a drug cartel, Guerra says things could escalate.

ROUNDS: If you're striking a cartel target in Venezuela that is part of this Cartel de los Soles, you are potentially opening yourself up to having the option of striking government facilities or other facilities that are connected in some way to the government.

At a Monday press briefing, reporters asked White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt if regime change is on the table. And she deflected.

LEAVITT: …the president has taken very unprecedented, tough action to end the illegal drug trafficking of illicit drugs into our country, from Maduro's illegitimate regime.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Carolina Lumetta in Washington.

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