[News] Venezuela and Fentanyl: Dismantling the US Narrative With Data From the US Government

[Anti-Imperialist News]

orinocotribune.com
<https://orinocotribune.com/venezuela-and-fentanyl-dismantling-the-us-narrative-with-data-from-the-us-government/>
Venezuela and Fentanyl: Dismantling the US Narrative With Data From the US
Government
Misión Verdad
October 1, 2025
------------------------------

[image: A vial of fentanyl citrate, used as pain medication in the US.
Photo: Joe Amon/Getty Images.]

A vial of fentanyl citrate, used as pain medication in the US. Photo: Joe
Amon/Getty Images.

By Misión Verdad  –  Oct 1, 2025

Amid political rhetoric that has sought to link Venezuela to the fentanyl
crisis in the United States, a recent official document from the US
government itself categorically refutes that accusation.

The International Narcotics Control Strategy Report 2025
<https://www.state.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/2025-International-Narcotics-Control-Strategy-Volume-1-Accessible.pdf>
(INCSR), published in March by the US State Department’s Bureau of
International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, makes clear that
Mexico is the sole significant source of illicit fentanyl and its analogues
that have affected the United States in 2024.

This finding is conclusive: Venezuela is not mentioned as a producer
country, a transit route, or a relevant actor in the trafficking of
fentanyl into US territory.

Moreover, the report underscores that according to seizure data and police
investigations, the competent authorities—including the DEA (Drug
Enforcement Administration)—agree that the entire illicit fentanyl supply
chain originates in Mexico, where synthetic pills and powders are
manufactured using chemical precursors primarily sourced from China.

*The contradiction between the political narrative and the technical facts*
Recently, US President Donald Trump has tried to link Venezuela to fentanyl
trafficking, even justifying military operations in the Caribbean—such as
precision strikes against small vessels—as part of a supposed anti-drug
strategy.

However, none of these claims is supported by the US government’s own
technical reports and official classifications. The INCSR 2025, which
relies on intelligence, joint operations, and forensic analysis, entirely
omits Venezuela from the fentanyl map.

This discrepancy between political rhetoric and institutional evidence
raises doubts about the true motives behind the accusations against
Venezuela, as it amounts to a weaponization of the drug problem for
geopolitical purposes. Or does it reflect a dangerous oversimplification
that ignores the complexity of global drug trafficking? It would hardly be
the case.

The truth is that, when comparing public statements with official
documents, a deliberate discrepancy becomes evident between what is said in
the political arena and what is acknowledged in technical offices.

*Venezuela’s structural absence from the fentanyl market*
Apart from what the US report states, there are structural reasons why
Venezuela is not involved in fentanyl trafficking:

   1. *Lack of chemical infrastructure:* Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid
   that requires sophisticated laboratories and access to highly regulated
   chemical precursors. Venezuela, with its pharmaceutical and chemical
   industries dedicated to national development efforts, lacks the technical
   and logistical capacity to produce it on a large scale. There are no
   indications of existence of clandestine laboratories specializing in
   synthetic opioids in the country, not even in areas where organized crime
   exists.
   2. *Geography and drug trafficking routes:* Fentanyl routes to the US
   are primarily overland, crossing the US southern border from Mexico. The
   Caribbean, although historically used for cocaine trafficking, is neither
   an efficient nor a common route for transporting fentanyl, which is a
   high-value drug that is moved in small quantities, making it ideal for
   smuggling by land or by mail. Small vessels—which Trump has attributed to
   transporting fentanyl from Venezuela—make no logistical sense in this
   context: fentanyl does not need to be transported in large volumes,
and its massive
   entry
   <https://misionverdad.com/globalistan/fase-zombi-de-la-american-way-life-abre-las-puertas-al-fentanilo-en-eeuu>
   into the US market is primarily carried out via parcel delivery, private
   vehicles, or established distribution networks in border cities.
   3. *Historical pattern of Venezuelan trafficking:* Venezuela has never
   been associated with synthetic opioids. Fentanyl is neither grown nor
   refined, unlike cocaine. The production of fentanyl is industrial and
   highly specialized, something foreign to the drug trafficking model in the
   Andean and Caribbean regions. Venezuelan criminal organizations, when they
   have engaged in drug trafficking, have done so within the Colombian cocaine
   trade (on a very small scale
   <https://misionverdad.com/venezuela/desmontando-la-gran-farsa-del-narcoestado-venezolano>),
   not in the manufacture of synthetic substances.

*The weight of institutional evidence*
The INCSR 2025 is the US government’s most comprehensive and authoritative
annual report on the global state of drug trafficking. Its preparation
involves multiple agencies: the DEA, the Department of Justice, the
Department of Homeland Security, and US embassies around the world. Its
conclusions guide resource allocation, international cooperation, and
diplomatic decisions in drug enforcement.

The fact that Venezuela is not even mentioned in this document in
connection with fentanyl is a deliberate decisioin based on years of
monitoring, interceptions, and intelligence analysis.

Moreover, the report not only identifies Mexico as the sole significant
source but also details US–Mexico bilateral cooperation mechanisms,
regulatory measures on pill manufacturing machines, and joint efforts to
control chemical precursors.

This shows that the US anti-drug strategy is focused on the Mexico–US axis.
Venezuela is not part of that axis; it is not even on the fringes.

*Political consequences*
When Trump attributes complex problems to the wrong origin, he not only
distorts reality but also generates practical consequences. For example,
military operations in the Caribbean, justified under the false premise
that Venezuelan fentanyl is being intercepted, divert resources from
genuine lines of action.

Furthermore, they fuel misconceptions in public opinion, making it
difficult to develop effective, fact-based policies.

Even worse, these unfounded accusations undermine US credibility in
international forums. If a country accuses another of illicit activities
without presenting verifiable evidence—and, worse, in contradiction to its
own official reports—its moral and diplomatic standing is weakened.

The fight against drugs requires cooperation, transparency, and technical
rigor. The politicization of information weakens it.

*Towards a fact-based drug policy*
The case of fentanyl and Venezuela illustrates that US drug policies are
not based on evidence but on convenient political narratives. It is a
distortion of reality that diverts resources, attention, and cooperation
from the true sources of the problem in order to forcibly bring about
regime change in a country.

The United States suffers an overdose epidemic that in 2024 alone claimed
more than 80,000 lives
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2025/05/14/fentanyl-overdose-deaths-decline/>
due to fentanyl overdose. To tackle it effectively, the United States must
focus on strengthening cooperation with Mexico, better regulating chemical
precursors globally, and addressing the root causes of addiction within its
own borders
<https://orinocotribune.com/the-fentanyl-epidemic-driven-by-profit-made-in-usa/>:
access to fentanyl, mental health crisis, inequality, and social despair.

Meanwhile, Venezuela has been exonerated—by the very most authoritative US
sources—of any involvement in fentanyl trafficking; it is not part of the
fentanyl supply chain.

Trump is only arguing about this issue because he is constantly being
provoked, especially by the State Department, that he must launch a violent
military campaign against Venezuela.

(Misión Verdad
<https://misionverdad.com/venezuela/venezuela-y-el-fentanilo-desmontando-mitos-con-datos-de-eeuu>
)

Translation: Orinoco Tribune

OT/SC/SL

[image: D-fi4iQXUAEvvf5-e1562097727116-540x359]

Misión Verdad

Misión Verdad is a Venezuelan investigative journalism website with a
socialist perspective in defense of the Bolivarian Revolution
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