The 2025 UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) report is crystal clear:

• Venezuela is free of coca cultivation and international cartels.
• Only a small amount of Colombian drug production passes through Venezuela on its way to the U.S. and Europe.

As Pino Arlacchi, former UNODC Executive Director, put it: “For 30 years, annual reports did not address Venezuelan drug trafficking because it does not exist.”

It’s a myth recycled to justify sanctions and regime change. The term was invented in 1993, long before Chávez or Maduro. Even the DEA’s 2025 National Drug Threat Assessment, which devotes 13 pages to Latin American cartels, doesn’t mention it. Former U.S. intelligence officials like Fulton Armstrong say no one in the community takes it seriously, except those trying to sell the war narrative.

The DEA itself admits TDA is not a cartel. It’s a criminal gang involved in small-scale drug trafficking, extortion, and human trafficking. According to an April 2025 National Intelligence Council memo: Venezuelan security forces view TDA as a threat, not a partner. There is no evidence the government cooperates with or directs TDA operations.

So when U.S. officials claim “Maduro works with cartels,” they’re ignoring their own intelligence.

There have been three separate incidents in September 2025

• Sept. 2: A U.S. missile strike killed 11 people on a Venezuelan vessel in international waters. Washington claimed it was a “drug boat,” but local media reported it was a fishing boat with four motors, not a typical smuggling vessel. With 11 passengers on board, far more than the 3 crew usually found on go-fast boats, it is unlikely the boat was trafficking tons of cocaine. This was an extrajudicial killing and possible war crime.
  
  
• Sept. 15: Another U.S. strike killed 3 more Venezuelans on a second vessel. Again, the justification was “narco-terrorism,” but there is no evidence. 
• Sept. 13 (between the two strikes): U.S. forces boarded and detained a Venezuelan tuna fishing boat with nine fishermen aboard in Venezuela’s own Exclusive Economic Zone. The crew was held for hours and only released under Venezuelan Navy escort. No one was killed in this incident but it was still a hostile act, condemned by Venezuela as a violation of sovereignty.
  
  

Why this matters: Together, these events show how Trump’s “narco-terror” policy has turned fishing crews and migrants into military targets. Strikes that kill civilians, alongside armed boardings of working fishermen, prove that this is not a “drug war” but an escalating campaign of intimidation and violence against Venezuela.

Because this war is being waged in our name, with our tax dollars. The same billions spent to punish Venezuela could fund healthcare, housing, or education at home. Ending sanctions is both an act of global solidarity and a step toward peace and justice in the U.S. itself.

• CODEPINK’s Pink Tank
• Independent U.S. Outlets: Democracy Now!, The Intercept, Common Dreams, The Nation
• Latin America & Caribbean: Telesur, Últimas Noticias, Brasil de Fato, NACLA
• Human Rights & Research: CEPR, UN Special Rapporteurs

• Join our Rapid Response Team
• Act locally: Visit your federal office and demand an end to sanctions and war threats.
• Spread truth: Share people-centered news and expose the lies.
• Organize: Join CODEPINK and other  solidarity groups in your area.