A new theatre of confrontation is unfolding in the Caribbean, where the United States has amassed a formidable array of warships, bombers, fighter jets, and intelligence assets off the coast of Venezuela. Officially, this show of force is a counter-narcotics operation. Unofficially, it looks like an attempt to engineer political change through intimidation, a strategy that echoes the Cold War’s quieter wars of coercion.

The declared purpose ~ fighting drug trafficking ~ is unconvincing on scrutiny. Venezuela is not a major producer of cocaine or fentanyl, nor is the Caribbean a primary conduit for such trade. The narcotics narrative offers a convenient moral cloak, but the true objective appears to be psychological warfare: to signal to Venezuela’s armed forces and governing elite that their President’s days are numbered. It is a pressure campaign masked as law enforcement, where fear and fatigue are expected to do the work of diplomacy.........

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