VENEZUELA
MADURO IN THE CENTER OF THE STORM
(Dec 4, 2025)
CARACAS. Nicolás Maduro Moros, President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is in the center of the conflict: since August, Donald J. Trump has accused him of leading a narco-state.
For this reason, he sent a flotilla to the Caribbean, which was joined by the aircraft carrier Gerald Ford, the largest US possesses, mobilising a total of 15,000 men.
A force of similar dimensions was last deployed only in 1989, when Washington invaded Panama to depose and arrest Manuel Antonio Noriega.
The Venezuelan leader is accused of introducing tons of narcotics, primarily cocaine of Colombian origin, into the US market.
Drugs are certainly a factor, but not the only one: Venezuela is, in fact, in possession of enormous, coveted oil reserves.
Let’s try to delve into the two aspects of the conflict, which is currently low-intensity but could flare up at any moment with consequences currently unpredictable across the entire Latin American landscape.
Read also
VENEZUELA MADURO STRAVINCE, L’OPPOSIZIONE SI SFARINA
***
DRUGS FRONT
LOS SOLES, EL TREN DE ARAGUA, AND OTHERS
There are at least two cartels that Washington alleges are flooding the United States with tons of cocaine: Los Soles and El Tren de Aragua.
***
LOS SOLES
“An organisation of drug traffickers,” writes Norberto Paredes[1], “composed of high-ranking Venezuelan officials.”
This is the White House’s description of Los Soles: a criminal organisation, declared terrorist, at whose head is allegedly the Head of State himself, who has had a $50 million bounty on him since August 7.
***
ORIGINS
The term Los Soles was first used by the Venezuelan press in the early 1990s when it emerged that Gen. Ramón Guillén Dávila, who headed the anti-drug services of the Caracas National Guard, had flooded the US with 22 tons of cocaine over four years (1987 – 1991).
Los Soles are actually transporters for the Colombian cartels: the name assigned to them refers to the stars (soles, in spanish) that Venezuelan military personnel wear on their uniform, indicating the rank achieved in the armed forces.
This organisation is believed to involve several public officials in Caracas.
***
EL TREN DE ARAGUA
The other cartel attracting the attention of the United States is called El Tren de Aragua and extends its tentacles across all of South America.
***
ORIGINS
The gang originated in 2010 within a union that controlled a stretch of railway under construction in the state of Aragua: initially, they blackmailed contractors to hire people who had paid to work on the construction sites.
They then expanded their interests to the drug business and illegal mineral extraction: the epicenter of their operation is the prisons, starting from Tocorón, Aragua, where Héctor Rusthenford Guerrero, known as “el niño Guerrero,” recruits followers among the inmates.
His empire now extends throughout Venezuela and beyond: in Peru, Brazil, and especially Colombia, he operates in the drug trade in conflict with other gangs.
***
THE OTHERS
Besides the Venezuelans, other organisations traffic narcotics in the neighboring country:
• The ELN (Ejercito de Liberación Nacional), a guerrilla group active in the Caribbean provinces and near the border with Caracas, finances itself through the cocaine trade.
• Factions of the FARC (Fuerzas Armada Revolucionaria de Colombia), in dissent with the national leadership, do the same.
• Finally, there are the cartels that have been active for decades.
To this complex criminal reality, the Mexican gangs that have colonised the Pacific coast of Ecuador must be added.
Read also
DITTATURE IL 70% DELL’UMANITA’ VIVE SOTTO REGIMI OPPRESSIVI
***
HYDROCARBONS FRONT
However, Venezuela is not just about this: since 1914, it has been a strong oil producer.
In fact, it’s known to have reserves that could last well beyond the exhaustion of Middle Eastern wells.
***
DRILL, BABY DRILL
With the slogan “drill, baby drill,” Donald J. Trump has launched the search for new sources of oil and natural gas supply: although the United States has become the world’s largest producer of hydrocarbons, it needs to control sources coming from other countries.
The Southern Caribbean area is one of the richest: Curaçao, Trinidad & Tobago, and Guyana show promise, and Chevron has already obtained several drilling licenses off the Guyanese coast.
Now, however, the time has come to put pressure on Maduro, also to prevent Venezuelan crude oil from falling into Chinese hands.
Moreover, the renewed controversy with Guyana over the control of the Essequibo region is worrying: on December 3, 2023, a plebiscite was held in which the Chavismo sought the Venezuelan people’s approval for annexation.
The propaganda preceding the vote raised fears that an invasion of the neighbor was imminent: however, nothing happened, partly because the US and UK stated they were ready to support Guyana.
Read also
VENEZUELA CHI E’ IL VERO PRESIDENTE?
***
VENEZUELA
GEOGRAPHY
The República Bolivariana de Venezuela occupies the northern part of South America: bathed by the Caribbean Sea, it is not far from the former Netherlands Antilles and Trinidad & Tobago, and it borders Colombia, Brazil, and Guyana.
The surface area is 912.050 sq km and the population is 28.9 million inhabitants.
Capital: Caracas; other important towns: Maracaibo, Valencia, Barquisimiento, Ciudad Guayana.
***
ENVIRONMENT
The country is composed of three natural regions. In the north and west are the Andes and other mountain ranges; there are also high mountains in the south. In the center, the plains of the Orinoco offer surfaces suitable for livestock farming. In the southeast, ancient rock and sandstone plateaus extend to the borders with Brazil and Guyana, a sparsely populated area, rich in dense forests, savannas, rivers, and particular geological formations, the “tepuyes” (flat-topped mountains) and the strange “sarisarinama” (ravines). Most of the population lives in the northern mountains. The plains are found on the coast.
It produces oil, iron, manganese, bauxite, tungsten, chrome, gold, and diamonds. The main environmental problems are deforestation and soil degradation. Furthermore, the lack of water treatment plants in large urban and industrial centers causes an increase in pollution of rivers and the Caribbean Sea.
***
POPULATIONS, LANGUAGES AND RELIGIONS
Venezuelans are descended from the integration of indigenous peoples with Afro-Caribbeans and European settlers. The natives don’t reach 7% of the total inhabitants.
While many people also flowed in from Europe in the 1950s and 1960s when the national economy was undergoing a period of explosive development and money was flowing freely, in recent years about 8 million people have emigrated abroad, mainly to South America and Spain.
The most practiced religion is Catholicism, although Pentecostal groups are growing.
The official language is Spanish, but 31 indigenous languages exist.
***
STATE
It’s a presidential republic: the head of state, elected by people every six years, appoints the ministers.
Legislative power is exercised by a unicameral National Assembly.
The territory is divided into 21 States, governed by a governor elected since 1989, and local assemblies.
To these are added a federal district, Caracas, and two semi-autonomous territories.
Read also
VENEZUELA. MADURO WANTS GUAYANA ESEQUIBA
***
HISTORY
This country has experienced tumultuous events that would require a more detailed discussion: for reasons of space, we will focus our attention on some key moments.
***
THE NAME
Upon the arrival of Christopher Columbus (1498), the far north of South America was inhabited by peoples of Caribbean origin who lived on stilt houses.
The characteristics of the territory therefore suggested that the environment was one where man lived in contact with water, just like in Venice.
Consequently, this area was named “little Venice,” or Venezuela.
***
THE STRUGGLE FOR INDEPENDENCE
Between the late 1700s and the first decades of the following century, the ideals of the French Revolution spread, especially among the Creoles[2].
Taking advantage of Spain’s momentary weakening, which was involved in the Napoleonic Wars, Venezuela revolted on July 5, 1811: however, Madrid sent troops, and the uprising was crushed.
The next decade had to pass before independence was achieved here (1825).
The leader of the anti-colonial movement, Simón Bolívar, had a dream: to create Gran Colombia, a huge state comprising most of South America.
The nationalistic demands of the other territories caused the Bolivarian project to fail, leading to the birth of the other Andean States.
***
CAMBIA TODO CAMBIA
In 1914, oil gushed from a well in the Maracaibo region, and President Vicente Gómez understood that in this way, the country could escape underdevelopment.
Indeed, in the following decades, the extraction and export of crude oil brought torrents of money into the State’s coffers: in the 50s and 60s, Caracas became a city with many skyscrapers: the bourgeoisie went abroad, spending freely, and the State did the same.
The spell was broken in the 1980s when the government discovered it had accumulated mountains of debt with the international banking system: the Bolívar, the national currency, was devalued, and the presidents who had promised a golden age during their election campaigns were forced by the IMF to launch severe structural adjustment programs, as they are called in Washington.
Tension exploded in 1989 when the Caracazo broke out: thousands of people took to the streets to protest against the executive. The police reacted, and blood was shed.
***
THE “CHAVISMO”
The 1990s were an ordeal for Venezuela, and when an army officer ran for president in December 1998 with a program aimed at redistributing wealth, he was overwhelmingly elected with 56% of the votes.
His name is Hugo Chávez Frías (1954 – 2013): after making a career in the armed forces and attempting a coup in 1992, when he was sworn in as President, he announced that from that moment on, Venezuela had entered the “Socialism of the Third Millennium.”
His recipe was simple: the proceeds from oil exports financed education and healthcare, meals were distributed to the poor people, and land was redistributed from landlords to the landless farmers.
Consent was sky-high as long as crude oil prices were high, then they plummeted, and the country’s dependence on the trends of raw materials markets produced its effects: when Chávez died (March 2013), inflation had spread, and empty pots and pans were clanging in the poor neighborhoods of Caracas.
Read also
***
THE ROLE OF THE CHURCH
“The Catholic Church remains,” writes Javier Campos[3], “one of the few institutions in Venezuela with broad public trust and sufficient moral authority to speak on political issues.” Thus, during the Thanksgiving Mass for the canonisation of two Venezuelan saints, Card. Pietro Parolin, former Nuncio in Caracas and Vatican Secretary of State, on October 20, breaking a long silence, said: “Listen to the words of the Lord, who calls you to open unjust prisons, to break the chains of oppression.” At the same time, he urged the building of peace on the foundations of justice, truth, freedom, and love, centered on respect for human rights, democratic coexistence, and the common good.
In the preceding days, the local Bishops’ Conference invited the authorities to release over 800 political prisoners, while in a public event, Card. Baltazar Porras described the situation in Venezuela as “morally unacceptable,” citing poverty, militarisation, corruption, and the erosion of institutional autonomy.
We’ll see whether the Latin American country will embark on the path of restoring freedoms or be involved in another conflict.
PIER LUIGI GIACOMONI
***
NOTES:
[1] N. Paredes, Qué se sabe del Cartel de los Soles, la organización designada como terrorista por EE.UU. y acusada de tener su base en las Fuerzas Armadas de Venezuela, bbcmundo.com, November 17, 2025;
[2] Creoles: Name used since the 16th century during the colonial period in various central-southern areas of the American continent to indicate individuals born of parents of European origin.
CFR. https://www.treccani.it/vocabolario/creolo/
[3] J. Campos, Vatican Secretary of State calls for justice in Venezuela, aleteia.org, October 22, 2025.
