In less than a month, three boats off the coast of Venezuela have purportedly been bombed by US naval forces now stationed off the coast of Venezuela. The first boat sank on September 2, allegedly carried eleven people, and it was unclear whether any survived. Reports in the media suggested that the bombing may have been an artificial intelligence film as well as questions whether the boat may not have been a drug smuggling operation since high speed drug boats carry few passengers in order to carry more drugs. The story quickly left the media pages until the latest boat sinkings in mid-September.

These boat bombings have followed a heightened build-up towards war against Venezuela since August of this year. On August 7, the bounty for the arrest of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro increased from $25 million to $50 million, with US Attorney General Pam Bondi accusing Maduro of collaborating with foreign terrorist organizations to smuggle drugs into the US. It was during the first Trump administration in 2020 that a bounty was placed on Maduro for $15 million and then in January 2025 it was raised to $25 million. On August 8, the US military deployed eight warships, 1,200 missiles, 10 F-35 fighter jets, a nuclear submarine off the coast of Venezuela and some 4,500 military personnel including 2,200 Marines and amphibious assault crews. These moves were followed by the bombings of the small boats. In addition to Maduro’s bounty, increased financial sanctions, lesser bounty rewards and travel visa restrictions have been levied against others in Maduro’s administration and Venezuelan state oil and transportation officials.

These provocations under the guise of a drug war come even as there is little evidence that Venezuela and President Nicolas Maduro are involved in any drug smuggling. Juan Gonzalez, former senior director for the Western Hemisphere at the US National Security Council, has stated clearly that there is no credible evidence that Maduro directs any narco-gangs. Furthermore, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime 2025 report notes that only 5% of drugs going to the US pass through Venezuela; that in fact the country has consolidated its status as a territory free from coca leaf cultivation or drug

production, as well as free from international criminal cartels.

Yet Trump continues to push the narrative that Maduro is the head of a cartel called “Cartel of the Suns” and the attack on Venezuela is part of his War on Drugs. Trump’s real purpose is “regime change” in Venezuela, a strategy that was implemented in 2019 when Trump and other countries proclaimed Juan Guido as President of Venezuela even though not one person in Venezuela voted him into office and Maduro had won in the national presidential elections. And the real reason for regime change is the US wants control of Venezuela’s oil resources, the largest deposit of oil in one country in the world. Venezuela’s oil resources have been a lifeline to Cuba and lays the basis for important trade with China and Russia.

The US war against Venezuela has been met with resistance in and outside Venezuela. In response to the warships, Maduro mobilized Venezuela’s popular militia that reportedly counts for 4.5 million members with its purpose to defend the country’s sovereignty. On September 1, Maduro was quoted by Al Jazeera that the US is “seeking a regime change through military threat…Venezuela is confronting the biggest threat that has been seen on our continent in the last 100 years…If Venezuela is attacked, we would immediately move to armed struggle in defense of our territory.” Maduro continued to state that he would declare Venezuela “a Republic in arms.”

The September 1 issue of Venezuelan newspaper Ultimas Noticias reports that governments of 80 nations have repudiated the presence of US warships in the Caribbean and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), an alliance of 33 countries, convened an emergency session to address the crisis. The 10 countries of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our Americas (ALBA-TCP) have unanimously condemned the US deployments. The Presidents of Mexico, Columbia and Brazil have been outspoken about the US military aggression as well as they know they are also targets of Trump’s manufactured War on Drugs and plans for regime change.