The Latin American Report # 599

This AP report is a very interesting account about the U.S. military deployment off the Caribbean coast of Venezuela, and in particular about Güiria, a fishing town in the Paria Peninsula involved in the latest events. Despite official secrecy—both in Washington and Caracas—civil society and local and international media have been clearing up some doubts about what happened on September 2, when U.S. forces attacked a boat—allegedly packed with drugs—, killing its 11 crew members. In recent hours, they carried out a third strike.

Everything suggests that the boat attacked on September 2 departed along with two others from San Juan de Unare, another fishing area located in the northwestern part of the peninsula, with eight local crew members and three from Güiria. Several reports and analyses state that both localities, along with San Juan de las Galdonas, have been invaded by the cancer of drug trafficking, which uses them as bridges within a supply chain that begins in Colombia. It is claimed that the cargo carried on the boat attacked on September 2 —a go-fast one about 12 meters long by 2.5 wide, with four 200-horsepower engines— had a market value of 120 million dollars. There seems to be a reality here.

According to AP, in Güiria it is an “open secret” that there is drug trafficking activity, often inferred when fishermen and their relatives suddenly make large purchases or go out to eat, given that nowadays fishing yields far less than necessary. For many, this is hardly a justification, but fishermen claim that “living off fishing alone in Venezuela today is to accept a life of poverty.” “Many make the mistake because they are in dire need,” a woman told AP, specifying cases such as a health emergency. “Need forces them to do anything, and since the government doesn’t come here to help, what is one supposed to do?”

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Although the U.S. news agency does not appear to have investigated or found much linking what happened in San Juan de Unare with the Tren de Aragua—a designated Venezuela-born gang very integrated into the White House’s narrative on regional criminality, along with the so-called Cartel of the Suns—, other reports are more direct in this regard. “The Tren de Aragua is present, but there are also other groups — other ‘trenes’ (gangs). In fact, all of these are areas where local gangs merged with or allied themselves with the larger groups that came from outside,” an expert told Venezuelan outlet Efecto Cocuyo. However, there is very little (official) solid information about this, particularly regarding the alleged link between the victims of the three U.S. strikes and the unfamous TdA.

The problem here is not limited to drug trafficking, but there is consensus that there is also much smuggling of humans, weapons, wildlife, and fuel. But beyond these (potential) facts, there is even less clarity about the ultimate goal of the U.S. deployment, because Venezuela does not appear to be the hottest point of drug trafficking in Latin America. “If you look at (the boats), these could never make the journey all the way up the Caribbean to the United States,” Christopher Sabatini, a research fellow at the London-based Chatham House, told AP, branding the White House narrative as “exaggerated.” “These are small-scale fishermen — and now small-scale drug traffickers — that don’t represent the crux of the issue.”

So then, is all this a staging that prepares the ground for a surgical strike against Venezuela to topple Maduro? Trump, ultimately, has been characterized by not starting wars, and he is not a promoter of regime change efforts either. On the contrary, he likes to present himself as a great “peacemaker” or "dealmaker". Maduro and Venezuelan authorities, who unsuccessfully tried to put the issue at the center of UNGA’s debates, allege that everything has to do with the country’s oil appeal, as Venezuela holds the world’s largest reserves. Although Trump himself has said they don’t need it, many U.S. refineries are specially designed to process Venezuelan heavy crude. Then, again, is all this a show of force to fire up certain electoral bases at home? I will remain attentive here to this certainly murky political development.

BREAKING 👇

Regional news brief

• Jonathan González, an Ecuadorian soccer player, 31, was shot to death in his home in the city of Esmeraldas. The event once again highlights the unstoppable violence oppressing the South American nation.
  

• In Peru, the last five families who resisted a forced resettlement by authorities—to make way for an expansion of a copper mine operated by the China-based Chinalco—were evicted by force yesterday, Friday. The mining company built a new town named Nueva Morococha, to which the bulk of the old town’s population had been relocated. This is a protracted judicial-administrative battle that ended to the detriment of the most vulnerable, again.
  

This is all for today’s report.