The U.S. anti-narcotics operation deployed in the Caribbean, surrounding Venezuela’s territorial waters, has reignited the debate over a potential military intervention against the Chavista regime led by Nicolás Maduro. The Cartel of the Suns—classified as a terrorist organization by the U.S., Ecuador, Paraguay, Argentina, the Dominican Republic, and the European Parliament (headed by Diosdado Cabello)—is a primary target of this Caribbean operation.
Over the past two decades of Chavista rule, ties between both Hugo Chávez Frías (1998–2013) and his successor Nicolás Maduro Moros with drug trafficking and regional terrorist groups have become evident. Connections with organizations such as the FARC and ELN in Colombia, along with Middle Eastern terrorist groups like Hezbollah, reveal the nature of these relationships. They go beyond the political framework of 21st-century socialism, evolving into an economic and criminal alliance.
Given this situation, political and institutional channels—already exhausted both internally and externally—have definitively closed off any non-confrontational path with the socialist regime led by Chavismo. This is evidenced by recent interceptions and attacks on smugglers using boats operated by criminal groups like Tren de Aragua, which have been neutralized in the operation.
The question now is to understand why what is happening was not only inevitable, but also a necessity if the goal is to end the Chavista regime: intervention in Venezuela.
The Refugee Crisis
Numbers don’t lie: approximately 9.4 million Venezuelans have fled the country. Various factors—political persecution, intensified since the July 28 elections, and living conditions degraded by extreme poverty and lack of services—have impacted neighboring countries at every level. Today, part of these nations’ budgets is allocated to addressing the Venezuelan crisis, whether through migration assistance and integration or through stricter border controls, as seen in the U.S.
In response, many countries have imposed visa requirements on Venezuelans attempting to enter; they have also carried out deportations and implemented restrictive policies against political asylum and humanitarian aid programs, such as Temporary Protected Status (TPS). Those of us familiar with the reality know the flow of people will not decrease—it will increase, and pressure on regional governments will continue to grow.
Organized Crime
In recent years, international bodies have confirmed longstanding reports about the presence of paramilitary, guerrilla, and drug trafficking groups operating within Venezuelan territory.
The confirmed presence of FARC-EP and ELN has recently raised alarms in neighboring countries. From Venezuela, these groups have launched operations that threaten regional peace and security. Drug trafficking has become a source of income for the Venezuelan regime and currently sustains it. Venezuela acts as a bridge for cartels from Central America and Colombia to Europe.
International Terrorism
Venezuela serves as a hub for the expansion of jihadist groups directed from Iran and Lebanon, particularly Hezbollah. While this has sparked debate, there is no doubt about their presence or the Venezuelan regime’s support for its Middle Eastern allies.
Venezuela’s ties to international terrorism go beyond political cooperation with the Ayatollahs’ regime; they also include its relationship with Vladimir Putin’s Russia, which leads a terrorist state. This collaboration has intensified due to the international isolation faced by both Caracas and Moscow.
The Bolivarian Breeze
The dictatorship has repeatedly used its allies—both criminal and political—in the region to wage an asymmetric war against defenders of liberty. We can observe how Chavismo assaults the region: protests, civil movements, political organizations, criminal gangs, terrorist groups, and drug traffickers have unleashed chaos in the streets of Latin America’s democratic nations.
Santiago de Chile, Bogotá, Quito, and La Paz, among others, have been victims of attacks by Bolivarian groups and criminal gangs linked to Venezuelan Chavismo. The leader of the Cartel of the Suns, Diosdado Cabello, has repeatedly stated that “the Bolivarian breeze is sweeping across Latin America.”
What response have these actions provoked in allied democracies? A containment policy—which has failed in the face of the scale of the crisis. This only breeds conflict: a war between opposing poles. Intervention will come, but at a higher cost.
The intervention will be defensive in nature: following the regime’s next aggressions, the region will have no other choice.
Havana
In the political landscape of the Americas, the region still harbors the greatest error it ever tried to “contain”: the island ruled by the Communist Party—Cuba—which has held power for over six decades.
Venezuela is not a locally originated problem: it is a Cuban conquest, a demonstration of the island’s communist power. Although the conflict unfolds on Venezuelan soil, it inevitably leads to confrontation with Cuba at every level.
The island aims to use its political satellites, including ties with parties in liberal democracies—such as Spain’s PSOE, Colombia’s Pacto Histórico, and Argentina’s Justicialismo—to ensure its survival. That is why the region must prepare for the inevitable: a full-scale geopolitical war against the communist regime.
The Legitimacy of Intervention
The outcome of the July 28 elections led to the recognition of Edmundo González Urrutia as president-elect and mobilized the Venezuelan population in a way not seen in years. Citizens took charge of safeguarding and digitizing the electoral records that helped dismantle Chavismo, and they also joined the protests following the results announced by the National Electoral Council (CNE).
María Corina Machado is the undisputed leader of this effort, which has marked a turning point. We now face the crossroads of an indirect intervention, emerging as a result of this mobilization.
There is democratic and institutional legitimacy for a meaningful transfer of power—whether through a deep intervention or through the internal fractures caused by U.S. military pressure in its anti-narcoterrorism operation that could bring about the end of the dictatorship.
Yomar Stiven Moreno Lugo
General Coordinator of the Libertarian Movement of Venezuela
