[News] Corporate Media Parrot Dubious Claims Used To Justify War On Venezuela
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Fri Nov 21 12:32:21 EST 2025
popularresistance.org
<https://popularresistance.org/corporate-media-parrot-dubious-drug-claims-used-to-justify-war-on-venezuela/>
Corporate Media Parrot Dubious Claims Used To Justify War On Venezuela
By Ricardo Vaz, Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting.
November 20, 2025
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Since August, the US has been amassing military assets in the Caribbean.
Warships, bombers and thousands of troops
<https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/18/world/americas/us-venezuela-military-maduro-trump.html>
have been joined by the USS /Gerald R. Ford/, the world’s largest
aircraft carrier, in the largest
<https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/nov/11/navy-carrier-trump-drugs-caribbean-latin-america>
regional deployment
<https://www.armyrecognition.com/news/army-news/2025/current-overview-of-u-s-forces-in-caribbean-sea-deployment-targeting-venezuela-linked-drug-networks>
in decades. Extrajudicial strikes against small vessels, which UN
experts have decried
<https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2025/10/un-experts-condemn-coercive-intervention-venezuela-united-states>
as violations of international law, have killed at least 80 civilians
(*CNN*, 11/14/25
<https://edition.cnn.com/2025/11/13/politics/20th-strike-us-military-boats-caribbean>).
Many foreign policy analysts believe that regime change in Venezuela is
the ultimate goal (*Al Jazeera*, 10/24/25
<https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2025/10/24/the-us-warships-off-venezuela-arent-there-to-fight-drugs>;
*Left Chapter*, 10/21/25
<https://www.theleftchapter.com/post/from-baghdad-to-caracas-a-washington-manual-on-sanctions-and-war>),
but the Trump administration instead claims it is fighting
“narcoterrorism,” accusing Caracas of flooding the US with drugs via the
Cartel of the Suns and Tren de Aragua, both designated as foreign
terrorist organizations.
Over the years, Western media have endorsed Washington’s Venezuela
regime-change efforts at every turn, from cheerleading coup attempts to
whitewashing deadly sanctions (*FAIR.org*, 6/13/22
<https://fair.org/home/calibrated-dishonesty-western-media-coverage-of-venezuela-sanctions/>,
6/4/21
<https://fair.org/home/us-sanctions-against-venezuela-cause-shortages-in-diesel/>,
1/22/20
<https://fair.org/home/how-western-left-media-helped-legitimate-us-regime-change-in-venezuela/>).
Now, with a possible military operation that could have disastrous
consequences, corporate outlets are making little effort to hold the US
government accountable. Rather, they are unsurprisingly ceding the floor
to the warmongers.
Fabricating ‘Tensions’
Despite Washington ominously amassing naval assets and issuing overt
threats against Caracas, Western journalists often talk of “tensions”
between the two countries (*Fox*, 11/17/25
<https://www.foxnews.com/politics/us-troops-venezuela-trump-hints-major-moves-possible-tensions-soar>;
*ABC*, 11/18/25
<https://abcnews.go.com/GMA/News/video/tensions-rise-us-venezuela-127623336>),
or even a “showdown” (*Wall Street Journal*, 10/9/25
<https://www.wsj.com/world/americas/venezuelas-strongman-is-tryingand-failingto-appease-trump-8e9c020d>;
*Washington Post*, 10/25/25
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/10/24/trump-venezuela-maduro-cartels-war-terror/>).
This is conceptually similar to the framing of Israel’s genocide in Gaza
as a “conflict” with Hamas (*FAIR.org*, 12/8/23
<https://fair.org/home/israel-hamas-war-label-obscures-israels-war-on-palestinians/>),
except in this case the media does not have an equivalent of October 7
to rationalize all the atrocities by the US and its allies.
Though the Trump administration has largely abandoned the traditional US
exceptionalist
<https://mediadiversified.org/2016/07/10/the-left-the-right-and-american-exceptionalism/>
discourse of promoting “freedom” and “democracy,” that has not stopped
corporate journalists from relentlessly demonizing the Venezuelan
government.
Journalists are quick to label Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro,
currently facing hundreds of Tomahawk missiles pointed at his country,
an “authoritarian” (*Guardian*, 11/14/25
<https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/nov/14/venezuela-maduro-urges-trump-to-avoid-afghanistan-style-forever-war>;
*New York Times*, 10/15/25
<https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/15/us/politics/trump-covert-cia-action-venezuela.html>😉
or an “autocrat” (*Wall Street Journal*, 11/5/25
<https://www.wsj.com/politics/national-security/trump-expresses-reservations-over-strikes-in-venezuela-to-top-aides-0bf17d5c>;
*Washington Post*, 10/24/25
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/10/24/trump-venezuela-maduro-cartels-war-terror/>).
In contrast, the same pieces place no labels on the Trump administration
despite its authoritarianism both at home and abroad (*Guardian*,
10/16/25
<https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/oct/16/trump-authoritarianism-warning>;
*CNN*, 8/13/25
<https://edition.cnn.com/2025/08/13/politics/authoritarian-moves-trump-analysis>).
Articles in the *Guardian* (11/6/25
<https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/nov/06/venezuela-panama-invasion-trump>,
10/22/25
<https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/oct/22/us-night-stalkers-caribbean-fears-regime-change-venezuela-nicolas-maduro>)
describe US operations in Grenada (1983) and Panama (1989) as success
stories, fawning over special operations forces while ignoring the
deadly impact. The Panama City neighborhood of El Chorrillo
<https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2016/1/31/the-truth-behind-us-operation-just-cause-in-panama>
became known as “Little Hiroshima” after civilians were massacred
<https://www.projectcensored.org/6-what-really-happened-to-panama-is-a-different-story/>
there during the US invasion.
Very few outlets recall more recent US interventions, such as
Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and Syria, which according to Brown
University’s Costs of War project
<https://costsofwar.watson.brown.edu/costs/human> have killed an
estimated 4.5–4.7 million people over the past two decades. Such
“accumulation by waste
<https://lpeproject.org/events/the-accumulation-of-waste-a-political-economy-of-genocide-and-imperialismwith-ali-kadri-and-max-ajl/>”
has seen $8 trillion
<https://costsofwar.watson.brown.edu/costs/economic> transferred to the
military-industrial complex, Wall Street and Silicon Valley.
Hiding The Evidence
Washington’s steady escalation in the Caribbean has evoked memories of
the buildup to the Iraq War, when Washington also counted on crucial
support from the media establishment to manufacture consent for
imperialist war (*FAIR.org*, 2/5/13
<https://fair.org/home/where-are-they-now-the-reporters-who-got-iraq-so-wrong/>,
3/22/23
<https://fair.org/home/20-years-later-nyt-still-cant-face-its-iraq-war-shame/>).
At that time, corporate media parroted White House claims about Iraq’s
hidden arsenal, despite evidence that Iraq had destroyed its banned
weapons arsenal, in contradiction to the White House’s case for war
(*FAIR.org*, 2/27/03
<https://fair.org/home/star-witness-on-iraq-said-weapons-were-destroyed/>).
Fast forward more than 20 years, and once more there is ample
information undermining the administration narrative, this time about
“narcoterrorism.”
Reports
<https://www.unodc.org/unodc/data-and-analysis/world-drug-report-2025.html>
from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) have
consistently found Venezuela’s Eastern Caribbean corridor to be a
marginal route for US-bound cocaine trafficking, with former UNODC
director Pino Arlacchi estimating that only around 5% of
Colombian-sourced drugs flow through Venezuela (*L’Antidiplomatico*,
8/27/25
<https://www.lantidiplomatico.it/dettnews-pino_arlacchi__la_grande_bufala_contro_il_venezuela_la_geopolitica_del_petrolio_travestita_da_lotta_alla_droga/5871_62413/>).
These findings have been corroborated by the DEA itself. For instance,
the agency’s 2024 National Drug Threat Assessment report
<https://www.dea.gov/documents/2024/2024-05/2024-05-24/national-drug-threat-assessment-2024>
does not even include the word “Venezuela.” The 2025 report
<https://www.dea.gov/sites/default/files/2025-07/2025NationalDrugThreatAssessment.pdf>
only has a small section on the gang Tren de Aragua, which dismisses any
ties to the Venezuelan government and places its drug trafficking
activities “mainly at the street level.”
Yet these glaring flaws in the Trump administration’s casus belli are
often overlooked by Western media. Several outlets reporting on
potentially imminent US strikes mention the White House’s declared
anti-narcotics mission but conveniently omit the fact that, even
according to US agencies, fewer drugs flow through this region than many
others (*Guardian*, 11/11/25
<https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/nov/11/navy-carrier-trump-drugs-caribbean-latin-america>;
*Washington Post*, 11/14/25
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2025/11/14/trump-venezuela-maduro-strikes/>;
*Bloomberg*, 11/14/25
<https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-11-15/trump-says-he-s-made-progress-on-stopping-drugs-from-venezuela>;
*New York Times*, 11/14/25
<https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/14/us/politics/trump-pressure-venezuela.html>).
Former UNODC director Arlacchi pointed out
<https://www.lantidiplomatico.it/dettnews-pino_arlacchi__la_grande_bufala_contro_il_venezuela_la_geopolitica_del_petrolio_travestita_da_lotta_alla_droga/5871_62413/>
that “Guatemala is a drug corridor seven times more important than the
Bolivarian ‘narco-state’ allegedly is.” He accused Washington of
hypocritically driving the anti-Venezuela narrative due to interest in
its massive oil reserves.
‘Maduro Denies’
With the “narcoterrorism” accusations against Maduro and associates,
Western journalists absolve US officials of the burden of proof (*New
York Times*, 11/4/25
<https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/04/us/politics/trump-weighs-attacks-venezuela.html>;
*Financial Times*, 10/6/25
<https://www.ft.com/content/56462284-c282-47df-a037-024b4dad15b9?accessToken=zwAGQJR5lhuQkc9WRiKEwoJH39OgNwJLTa0VuQ.MEYCIQCJcIwxeM1Hj08jf_xck6cJrfYb7f7JinJ6JHV_GNLrtQIhAN8kEqFT5xPikO1Ha9vPdVArUq7mZHdsi2pWocZuG6CT&sharetype=gift&token=5e6a12f1-13eb-45c5-ac95-0ccb3f2852c8>;
*Wall Street Journal*, 11/5/25
<https://www.wsj.com/politics/national-security/trump-expresses-reservations-over-strikes-in-venezuela-to-top-aides-0bf17d5c>).
There has never been any public evidence about Maduro, or other
high-ranking Venezuelan officials indicted by the US, being involved in
drug trafficking via the Cartel of the Suns, while a leaked US
intelligence memo
<https://cdn.factcheck.org/UploadedFiles/SOCM-2025-11374_Redacted.pdf>
rejected the notion of government ties to Tren de Aragua.
The Cartel of the Suns’ very existence is far from established, with
subject experts contending that, while drug trafficking may be entwined
with corruption in Venezuela’s military, there is no evidence of a
centralized structure going all the way up to the president (*InSight
Crime*, 11/3/25
<https://insightcrime.org/news/why-is-us-attacking-cartels-that-dont-exist/>,
8/1/25
<https://insightcrime.org/news/us-sanctions-mischaracterize-cartel-of-the-suns-venezuela/>;
*AFP*, 8/29/25
<https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20250828-us-targets-venezuela-over-soles-cartel-does-it-exist>).
Instead of exposing the unfounded accusations and providing data from
experts and specialized agencies, Western outlets either let Trump’s
case for war go unchallenged, or merely present a dissenting opinion
from Maduro, whom they have systematically demonized (*New York Times*,
10/06/25
<https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/06/us/politics/trump-venezuela-maduro.html>;
*DW*, 11/14/25
<https://www.dw.com/en/us-announces-military-operation-against-narco-terrorists/a-74737957>;
*NPR*, 11/12/25
<https://www.npr.org/2025/11/12/nx-s1-5604895/trump-venezuela-drug-boat-strikes>;
*CBS*, 10/15/25
<https://www.cbsnews.com/news/venezuela-military-exercises-after-us-military-strikes-boat-caribbean/>;
*CNN*, 11/14/25
<https://edition.cnn.com/2025/11/14/americas/venezuela-maduro-noriega-panama-latam-intl>).
This behavior is certainly not new, as Western outlets have consistently
pushed the unfounded “narcoterrorism” narrative, going back to the first
Trump administration (*FAIR.org*, 9/24/19
<https://fair.org/home/media-continue-to-push-misinformation-about-venezuela-and-drug-trafficking/>).
Similar unfounded accusations of drug trafficking were made against
Nicaragua in the 1980s (*Extra!*, 10–11/87
<https://fair.org/extra/lie-nicaraguan-government-leaders-are-involved-in-drug-trafficking/>,
7–8/88
<https://fair.org/extra/nicaraguas-drug-connection-exposed-as-hoax/>;
*FAIR.org*, 10/10/17
<https://fair.org/home/american-made-a-largely-true-story-with-some-not-so-fun-lies/>),
which served to justify US attempts to overthrow the Sandinista
government through the CIA-backed Contras.
Warmongers To The Stage
In his typical style, Trump has sent mixed signals over whether he wants
to strike targets inside Venezuela, with contradictory on-record and
unofficial statements going back and forth. When asked if the White
House is seeking regime change in Venezuela, Trump has been noncommittal
(*Wall Street Journal*, 11/4/25
<https://www.wsj.com/politics/national-security/trump-expresses-reservations-over-strikes-in-venezuela-to-top-aides-0bf17d5c>).
It is worth recalling that in June, Trump similarly sent all sorts of
inconsistent
<https://www.npr.org/2025/06/17/nx-s1-5436819/trump-iran-israel>
messages
<https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-06-17/donald-trump-g7-israel-iran-statement/105424942>
before ultimately attacking Iran’s nuclear facilities.
True to form (*FAIR.org*, 2/9/17
<https://fair.org/home/nyt-unlike-russian-wars-us-wars-promote-freedom-and-democracy/>,
4/13/18
<https://fair.org/home/few-to-no-anti-bombing-voices-as-trump-prepares-to-escalate-syria-war/>,
7/3/20
<https://fair.org/home/in-the-name-of-anti-trumpism-media-elevate-a-lying-warmonger/>),
many liberal establishment outlets have been more bellicose than the US
president they have occasionally chided for murdering scores of
civilians in the Caribbean (*The Hill*, 10/30/25
<https://thehill.com/opinion/international/5579175-venezuela-maduro-terrorism-threat/>;
*Foreign Policy*, 11/7/25
<https://foreignpolicy.com/2025/11/07/trump-maduro-venezuela-democracy-intervention/>).
The *New York Times*’ Bret Stephens (1/14/25
<https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/14/opinion/maduro-venezuela-trump.html>,
10/10/25
<https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/10/opinion/nobel-peace-prize-machado-maduro-venezuela.html>,
11/17/25
<https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/17/opinion/venezuela-trump-maduro.html>)
has advocated for a regime-changing military intervention for months
(*FAIR.org*, 2/12/25
<https://fair.org/home/nyt-advises-trump-to-kill-more-venezuelans/>).
Quite tellingly, Stephens does not regret supporting the Iraq War (*New
York Times*, 3/21/23
<https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/21/opinion/20-years-on-i-dont-regret-supporting-the-iraq-war.html>).
The *Washington Post* published an editorial (10/10/25
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2025/10/10/venezuela-maduro-trump-machado-war-peaceprize/>)
after the recent Nobel Peace Prize award to far-right Venezuelan leader
María Corina Machado, arguing that US interests would be “better served”
by someone like Machado, a firm endorser of US-led regime-change
(*FAIR.org*, 10/23/25
<https://fair.org/home/western-media-use-peace-prize-to-fuel-war-propaganda/>).
But with the war drums beating louder, the Jeff Bezos–owned paper
granted a column (11/12/25
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2025/11/12/venezuela-maduro-trump-john-bolton/>)
to John Bolton
<https://fair.org/home/in-the-name-of-anti-trumpism-media-elevate-a-lying-warmonger/>,
a former Trump adviser whose main criticism was that the administration
is not being efficient enough in overthrowing Maduro.
Bolton, an architect of the Iraq War, and of the “maximum pressure”
campaign against Venezuela during Trump’s first term, bemoaned the White
House’s “inadequate” explanations about the ongoing lethal boat strikes
and international quarrels as damaging the “laudable goal” of throwing
Venezuela into chaos.
Bolton went on to urge the administration to create a better “strategy,”
which includes “greater efforts to strangle Caracas economically.” The
*Washington Post* is happy to platform a call for escalating measures
that have already caused tens of thousands of deaths (CEPR, 4/25/19
<https://cepr.net/report/economic-sanctions-as-collective-punishment-the-case-of-venezuela/>).
Finally, the former Trump official says that “we owe it to ourselves and
Venezuela’s people” to violently oust the Maduro government, despite
opinion polls showing that such a military intervention is widely
rejected both in the US
<https://today.yougov.com/international/articles/53298-the-us-navy-deployment-near-venezuela-has-become-even-less-popular?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email>
and in Venezuela
<https://www.globovision.com/nacional/44527/93-de-los-venezolanos-rechaza-una-intervencion-militar-extranjera>.
*Bloomberg* columnist Javier Blas (11/4/25
<https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2025-11-05/venezuela-military-action-regime-change-may-open-oil-s-floodgates>)
went one step further by saying the quiet part out loud: “Venezuelan
Regime Change May Open Oil’s Floodgates.” Blas rejoiced at the prospect
of a “US-enforced change of ideology” that would install a “pro-Western
and pro-business government,” which would do wonders for energy markets
in the long run.
Unfazed by the human cost of a military intervention, the corporate
pundit was only concerned about the possible impact of Venezuela’s
current 1 million daily barrels of oil being wiped out. Who cares about
millions of Venezuelans when a “brief military campaign” could drive oil
prices down and secure a steady supply in the 2030s?
Complicity With War
The White House’s military build-up and illegal strikes have drawn
widespread condemnation and opposition, even from within the US
political establishment (*NPR*, 11/5/25
<https://www.npr.org/2025/11/05/g-s1-96661/rubio-hegseth-venezuela-congress>;
*Intercept*, 10/31/25
<https://theintercept.com/2025/10/31/trump-venezuela-boat-strikes-unprivileged-belligerants/>).
US politicians have also raised alarm bells about a potential military
intervention in Venezuela without congressional approval (*New York
Times*, 11/18/25
<https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/18/us/politics/house-democrats-press-for-vote-to-bar-military-action-in-venezuela.html>;
*Politico*, 11/6/25
<https://www.politico.com/live-updates/2025/11/06/congress/senate-venezuela-vote-00640088>),
but these voices feature much less prominently than the administration’s.
There is hope that a combination of Venezuelan defense deterrence with
domestic and international pressure, coupled with Trump’s own
unpredictability, might ultimately avoid yet another US regime-change
military assault.
But should the worst come to pass, the media establishment will have
once again done nothing to stop yet another deadly US foreign invasion.
Over weeks of military buildup and threats, corporate outlets elected to
ignore the evidence disproving Trump’s claims and to platform
warmongers. They will not wash the Venezuelan people’s blood off their
hands.
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