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Recent rhetoric surrounding the Venezuelan regime of Nicolás Maduro has framed US policy primarily through the lens of counternarcotics. This framing and the emphasis on Venezuela, however, risks obscuring a more consequential development vis-a-vis China’s expansion and growing influence across vital maritime and logistical corridors around the world. If reinvigorating the war on drugs was the principal objective, Venezuela would be a suboptimal focal point. It is a secondary transit node, not a production hub. Cocaine is produced primarily in Colombia while the majority of US-bound flows transit through Mexico rather than the Caribbean. The scale of Venezuelan flows alone is out of proportion with the level of military activity seen in recent months. This discrepancy suggests that drugs are a tactical concern nested within a broader context.
Despite being the primary transit point for US-bound flows, Mexico is managed through bilateral frameworks, not overt military signaling. This divergence between the US relationships with Mexico City and Caracas is illustrative of the more subtle realities of modern statecraft. Where economic interdependence and cooperative mechanisms exist (e.g., integration under USMCA), Washington pursues risk-managed engagement; where they do not, signaling and coercive presence become the de facto tools. This distinction reinforces conclusions that Venezuela’s importance may be less about mainstream narcotics talking points than its utility within global competition shaped by access, influence, and great-power posturing throughout Latin America and the Caribbean.
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