Trump's case for striking Venezuela

0:00 [Sam] On September 2nd in the Caribbean Sea,

0:02 a US military drone found what it was looking for, a 12 meter long wooden boat.

0:08 They're commonly used here by fishermen and also drug traffickers.

0:12 Typically, the US would stop and search the boat to find out which,

0:16 but this time the US just blew it up.

0:19 Two weeks later, the US blew up another boat,

0:21 then another, and another, and another.

0:25 Donald Trump claimed that dozens of people

0:27 killed by these strikes worked for drug cartels,

0:30 and that this was just the start of his new strategy to stop them.

0:34 To every terrorist thug smuggling poisonous

0:36 drugs into the United States of America.

0:38 Please be warned that we will blow you out of existence.

0:41 We have no choice.

0:43 [Sam] But most of Trump's strikes were in the wrong place.

0:45 Most drugs are produced in Colombia, Peru, Bolivia,

0:48 and Mexico, then trafficked over land or through the Pacific.

0:51 Then in October, we found out the real target.

0:55 Trump is ramping up his military campaign in the Caribbean.

0:58 [Reporter] Made it clear he wants

0:59 Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro removed from power.

1:03 [Reporter 2] Trump ordered the Navy's largest

1:04 and most advanced aircraft carrier to the region.

1:07 Authorized the CIA to operate inside Venezuela.

1:10 [Reporter 3] Warn Venezuela and its cartels at striking land is next.

1:15 [Sam] How did Trump turn a war

1:17 on drug cartels into a potential war with Venezuela?

1:20 This is not stretching the envelope.

1:21 This is tearing the envelope apart.

1:23 [Sam] Where could he take that war next?

1:25 It seems like a recipe for a war that could go on forever.

1:28 (upbeat music)- [Sam] Trump's right about one thing.

1:41 The cartels are stronger than ever.

1:44 The first modern drug cartel was formed

1:46 in the 1970s by a Colombian named Pablo Escobar.

1:49 He smuggled cocaine through the Caribbean and made millions of dollars.

1:53 Then he united several gangs into one organization and made billions.

1:57 By the 1980s, the Medellin Cartel was making 80% of the cocaine

2:01 trafficked into the US and its private army wreaked havoc across Colombia.

2:05 [Reporter 4] This is the most violent of cities.

2:07 There's a killing here every three hours,

2:09 some committed by these motorcycle gangs who work on retainers for the cartel.

2:15 The Medellin cartel was too powerful

2:16 for the Colombian government to take on alone.

2:18 So the US helped by sending its law enforcement agencies and its military.

2:23 America's public enemy number one in the United States is drug abuse.

2:30 [Sam] Richard Nixon was the first president to declare a war on drugs,

2:33 but Ronald Reagan supercharged the military's role in it.

2:36 He sent so-called military advisors and weapons to Colombia

2:39 and order the Navy to shut down trafficking rounds.

2:41 But the war on drugs wasn't an actual war,

2:44 and the Medellin cartel wasn't an invading

2:46 force that the military could shoot without warning.

2:49 It was a group of criminals.

2:50 So while the military could help find cartel members,

2:53 law enforcement arrested and prosecuted them.

2:56 That's how the US helped dismantle the Medellin cartel

2:59 and eventually find Escobar who died in a shootout.

3:02 But the war on drugs continued and presidents kept involving the military in it.

3:06 George H.

3:07 W.

3:07 Bush invaded Panama,

3:08 partly by citing Panama's leaders indictment for drug trafficking.

3:12 Bill Clinton deepened the military partnership

3:13 with Colombia, and under George W.

3:15 Bush, the military shared intelligence with Mexico.

3:19 This strategy didn't win the war on drugs, but it made a difference.

3:22 Had the US never focused on this issue,

3:24 you could only imagine these groups could be even more powerful.

3:27 Right?

3:27 [Sam] Will Freeman is an expert on organized crime in Latin America.

3:30 But has this stopped drug closer

3:33 radically decreased them into the United States?

3:35 No, it has not.

3:38 [Sam] Overdose deaths from cocaine and heroin increased over the last 25 years,

3:42 and deaths from fentanyl skyrocketed to almost 80,000 in 2023.

3:46 This demand kept the cartels in business.

3:48 After the Medellin cartel,

3:49 the Cali cartel took over and Colombians started trafficking

3:52 through Mexican criminal groups who evolved into even deadlier cartels.

3:56 When the US and Mexico cracked down on them,

3:58 they just fractured into more cartels.

4:00 Today, these cartels are partnering with criminal

4:03 groups in Europe and Asia to traffic

4:04 drugs around the world and make tens of billions of dollars a year.

4:08 More than enough money to corrupt officials,

4:10 innovate new ways to evade detection and diversify

4:13 into other crimes like human trafficking and wildlife poaching.

4:17 These are really formidable organizations,

4:19 and as long as there's that demand and as long as there's robust supply,

4:22 then fundamentally I think you're going to be talking about putting

4:24 a lid on a situation but not eliminating it all together.

4:28 But Donald Trump came into office with a new plan to fight the cartels.

4:31 It didn't involve curbing demand or law enforcement.

4:35 The cartels are a waging war on America,

4:37 and it's time for America to wage war on the cartels.

4:40 (everyone clapping)- This story is moving super fast.

4:43 Trump is striking boats in the Caribbean and in the Pacific,

4:46 and he recently authorized the CIA to work inside Venezuela.

4:50 Now, what interests me about this story

4:51 is how different outlets are covering it.

4:54 This level of insight is only possible

4:55 thanks to our sponsor this week, Ground News.

4:58 Ground News is the only website and app

5:00 that doesn't just track global news events.

5:02 It dissects them.

5:03 It gathers stories from all of the world and gives

5:05 me a clear sense of how they're being covered,

5:07 whether that's by factuality or reliability or ownership or political bias.

5:11 In this case, this story is covered by 715 outlets.

5:15 Outlets on the right are emphasizing how this is

5:17 a maximum pressure tactic against a tyrant or socialist president.

5:21 And outlets on the left are focusing on the regime

5:23 change motive and criticizing the unprecedented acknowledgement of such actions.

5:27 Ground News also lets me explore stories from all over the world,

5:29 giving me a sense of what may be overlooked by Western media.

5:33 Basically, my job is to understand not just what's being covered,

5:36 but how it's being covered.

5:37 And Ground News makes that job easier,

5:39 and I want the same transparency for my viewers.

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5:51 Ground News and I share the same mission.

5:52 That's to make the news more understandable and transparent for everybody.

5:55 So thanks again to Ground News for their support.

5:58 Now, I'll take you back to the story.

6:01 Trump began by focusing on eight criminal groups,

6:03 mostly cartels in Mexico, plus Tren de Aragua.

6:06 A gang started in a Venezuelan prison and Cartel de Los Soles,

6:10 a criminal network in the Venezuelan military.

6:12 Trump designated them as either foreign terrorist

6:15 organizations or especially designated global terrorist groups,

6:18 labels the US used before.

6:20 They are now officially in the same category as ISIS,

6:24 and that's not good for them.

6:26 [Sam] But these labels didn't have anything to do with the military.

6:28 They just broaden US law enforcement's abilities to prosecute

6:31 and sanction the cartels and people linked to them.

6:34 So whether that is a business which launders money or goes into business

6:38 with a cartel plateau to an immigrant who may be forced to pay a ransom fee,

6:42 it allows to cast that very, very wide net.

6:45 But then Trump sent a Navy fleet to the Caribbean and authorized

6:47 it to strike a boat suspected of running drugs for Tren de Aragua.

6:51 He then wrote to Congress that the people

6:53 killed were unlawful combatants in an armed conflict,

6:56 and that the strikes were in self-defense.

6:58 In other words, because drugs are killing Americans

7:01 and those drugs are trafficked in by cartels,

7:03 Trump wanted to view the cartels as combatants

7:05 in a war and use military force against them.

7:08 Trump wanted to turn the war on drugs into an actual legal war,

7:12 but could he do that?

7:16 Under the Constitution, only Congress can declare war, which it didn't.

7:20 Nor did Congress pass what's called an authorization of military force.

7:23 If anything, Trump seems to be claiming

7:25 his power under the Constitution's Article II,

7:28 which names him the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces.

7:31 It's how Obama, Trump in his first term,

7:33 and Biden justified some military operations.

7:36 It's an already dubious legal argument that Trump is

7:39 stretching even further because who the military kills matters too.

7:43 These strikes targeted members of enemy governments,

7:45 militaries and rebel groups.

7:47 Trump is killing criminals.

7:50 There are so many problems with that.

7:52 [Sam] Geoffrey Corn is a law professor and retired military lawyer.

7:55 Most fundamentally, it's not their goal to kill Americans.

7:58 The US considers Al-Qaeda and ISIS to be enemy combatants because they launched

8:02 a tax to kill Americans and because they commanded their members to do it.

8:06 Think of Farouk Abdulmatallab, the underwear bomber.

8:09 He boarded a plane in London and tried to blow

8:11 it up because he was obeying orders from Al-Qaeda leadership.

8:15 The question now is whether Tren de Aragua commanding people

8:18 to traffic lethal drugs to the US makes them combatants too?

8:22 This is not a evolution of that concept.

8:25 If you're selling drugs, you want your customer to live not die.

8:29 [Sam] Trump also hasn't released any evidence

8:30 that these people were working for Tren de Aragua.

8:33 This strike reportedly killed a fisherman.

8:36 We're killing people and we don't know who they are.

8:39 But the truth is, unless and until Congress

8:41 were to contest this claim of war power, the president is going to run with it.

8:46 [Sam] And Congress isn't contesting it.

8:48 When a measure came up to bar Trump from striking more boats,

8:51 Republicans blocked it.

8:52 So even though Congress hasn't authorized Trump's actions,

8:55 they've also decided not to stop him.

8:57 In October, Trump deployed more warships, fighter jets, drones,

9:00 a submarine and some 10,000 troops to the region

9:03 and authorized the military to strike more boats.

9:05 But then Trump went a step even further by claiming

9:08 that Tren de Aragua is controlled by Venezuela's dictator, Nicolas Maduro.

9:15 US spy agencies assess that while Maduro may tolerate the gang,

9:18 he does not control it.

9:19 But by linking him to Tren de Aragua,

9:21 Trump is claiming the power to use military force in Venezuela.

9:25 When a country is unable or unwilling to prevent

9:28 its territory from being used by non-state enemies,

9:31 then we assert the right to act.

9:33 That's how we went into Pakistan to kill Osama bin Laden.

9:36 That could very quickly escalate into a conflict with Venezuela.

9:41 [Sam] But why would Trump want to do that?

9:43 (Nicolas speaking in foreign language)-

9:53 [Sam] Venezuela has suffered under Maduro.

9:54 Right after he took power, the country's economy fell apart.

9:57 Crime increased and millions fled every year.

10:00 But Maduro remains in power.

10:02 He survives by stealing elections and corrupting

10:05 the military and elites for their loyalty.

10:07 All reasons why Trump may want Maduro gone, but not the only reasons.

10:11 Trump also blames Maduro for the thousands of Venezuela migrants

10:14 in the US and maybe pressuring Maduro into letting him send some back.

10:18 Many suggest that Trump may also want

10:19 access to Venezuela's huge reserves of oil.

10:22 But when Maduro offered the US a dominant

10:24 stake in Venezuela's oil to avoid conflict,

10:27 Trump refused it, which could mean Trump

10:29 has a more personal reason to remove Maduro.

10:31 (suspenseful music) In 2019, Trump backed a coup in Venezuela that failed.

10:37 It was embarrassing for him in the end,

10:38 not only was Maduro not ousted from power in the end,

10:41 the generals and others in his administration rallied behind him.

10:44 I think Trump wants to win this one.

10:45 [Sam] Trump may also be listening to the people around him,

10:48 especially the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio.

10:51 Rubio, for instance, for him, Venezuela, Nicaragua,

10:54 and Cuba, the three remaining autocracies in Latin America.

10:58 If he can oust Maduro, I think he believes that Cuba will fall next.

11:02 Trump is sending an aircraft carrier to the region,

11:04 and reports say he might order missile strikes in the coming weeks.

11:07 But anything short of a land invasion isn't likely to topple Maduro.

11:11 This is a regime that fully controls its own military at the highest levels,

11:15 has very sophisticated systems of espionage and control within that military,

11:19 and I don't see him being willing to sacrifice US lives,

11:22 especially as a president who campaigned on an end to forever wars.

11:28 (melancholic music)- [Sam] The war on terror

11:34 started after 9/11 when Congress authorized

11:35 President Bush to use force against basically anyone he could link to Al-Qaeda.

11:40 Later, presidents used these broad limits to justify

11:43 fighting in dozens of countries for two decades.

11:46 It left the US exhausted, and by some estimates, killed 4 million people.

11:50 Something Donald Trump promised not to repeat.

11:53 We spent $9 trillion bombing the hell out of the Middle East.

11:57 And what the hell did we get other than

11:59 lots of dead people all over including our people?

12:01 Under Trump, we will have no more wars, no more disruption.

12:05 No wars, my rhetoric is going to keep us out of wars.

12:08 [Sam] But Trump's warring the cartels has

12:10 even fewer limits than the war on terror.

12:12 He doesn't have permission from Congress, nor is he even seeking it.

12:15 I don't think we're going to necessarily ask for a declaration of war.

12:19 I think we're just going to kill

12:20 people that are bringing drugs into our country.

12:22 [Sam] Trump is also claiming the power to kill suspected criminals.

12:25 That's a much larger group than suspected terrorists linked to Al-Qaeda.

12:30 Mexican cartels are responsible for most of the drugs

12:33 trafficked into the US and Trump considered striking them before.

12:36 The President pulls me aside on at least a couple occasions

12:39 and suggests that maybe we have the US military shoot missiles into Mexico.

12:43 For what?

12:44 He would say to go after the cartels.

12:46 [Sam] But the authority Trump is claiming could

12:48 also include the power to strike the criminal

12:50 groups those cartels work with, or any group

12:52 Trump deems as putting the US in danger.

12:55 The problem is Trump is claiming the power

12:57 to go to war against anyone, anywhere, forever.

13:00 You know what could be more of a forever war than going after a set of nameless,

13:05 faceless cartels until they stop waging war on Americans,

13:08 which I think we all know is in some volume or other, never going to stop.

13:11 [Sam] And if Trump can declare war on criminals,

13:13 what's stopping other countries from doing it too?

13:16 Do we really want other governments to be able to say,

13:19 "Well, I've got a criminal problem,

13:21 so now I'm just going to call it an armed conflict and unleash

13:24 combat power like I'm in a war." There's a human consequence for that.

13:29 Congress is supposed to place limits on the President's power to declare war.

13:33 Trump is showing what can happen when it doesn't.

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