The New York Times reported on Friday that President Trump has declared war on Latin American drug cartels:
President Trump has secretly signed a directive to the Pentagon to begin using military force against certain Latin American drug cartels that his administration has deemed terrorist organizations, according to people familiar with the matter.
Well, it isn’t a secret directive any longer. My guess is that this is a deliberate leak, not an anti-Trump leak by Biden holdovers.
The decision to bring the American military into the fight is the most aggressive step so far in the administration’s escalating campaign against the cartels. It signals Mr. Trump’s continued willingness to use military forces to carry out what has primarily been considered a law enforcement responsibility to curb the flow of fentanyl and other illegal drugs.
But of course, the law enforcement approach hasn’t worked. So far, more than 400,000 Americans have died from fentanyl overdoses, similar to the number that died in World War II. And other drugs have wreaked havoc as well.
The order provides an official basis for the possibility of direct military operations at sea and on foreign soil against cartels.
Will the U.S. military actually carry out operations on Mexican or other Latin American soil? I doubt it, but don’t forget the Panama/Noriega precedent.
[D]irecting the military to crack down on the illicit trade also raises legal issues, including whether it would count as “murder” if U.S. forces acting outside of a congressionally authorized armed conflict were to kill civilians — even criminal suspects — who pose no imminent threat.
I don’t know, ask Barack Obama.
Whatever the Trump administration does to destroy the cartels will be a big improvement over our prior efforts. And the fentanyl, or its ingredients, come from China. China is deliberately killing hundreds of thousands of Americans, and they, too, should pay a steep price. The policy of the Biden administration to put our economy, in particular our energy infrastructure and our pharmaceuticals, in the hands of the Chinese Communist Party was always inexplicable. It is even more so in light of Chinese responsibility for the fentanyl epidemic.
At almost the same time, Attorney General Pam Bondi announced a $50 million reward for the apprehension of Venezuelan President and drug dealer in chief Nicolas Maduro. That wasn’t as dramatic a step as it sounded, since we already had a $25 million bounty on Maduro. Is there any likelihood that someone will commandeer Maduro and bring him to America to stand trial? For $50 million, who knows?
I would only add that the administration’s focus on Maduro is consistent with its using the Enemy Alien Act to expedite deportation of Tren de Aragua members. I wrote about that executive order here:
Nicolas Maduro, who claims to act as Venezuela’s President and asserts control over the security forces and other authorities in Venezuela, also maintains close ties to regime-sponsored narco-terrorists. Maduro leads the regime-sponsored enterprise Cártel de los Soles, which coordinates with and relies on TdA and other organizations to carry out its objective of using illegal narcotics as a weapon to “flood” the United States. In 2020, Maduro and other regime members were charged with narcoterrorism and other crimes in connection with this plot against America.
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Over the years, Venezuelan national and local authorities have ceded ever-greater control over their territories to transnational criminal organizations, including TdA. The result is a hybrid criminal state that is perpetrating an invasion of and predatory incursion into the United States, and which poses a substantial danger to the United States.
The Chavez/Maduro socialist/narco terrorist regime has devastated Venezuela and done great harm to the United States. Maduro and his military toadies need to go. I, for one, would support a military operation to overthrow Maduro’s government, simply on humanitarian grounds.
