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Trump Comments On Drug Cartel Activity
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Trump Comments On Drug Cartel Activity

When Colombian President Gustavo Petro stood up and accused the United States of “murder” over a counter-narcotics strike that allegedly killed a “fisherman,” he wasn't delivering a press conference — he was delivering a script. A familiar one. One that’s been performed in Caracas, Tehran, Havana, and now Bogotá. The name changes. The details are altered. But the story remains the same: the United States acts to defend its interests, disrupts the dirty machinery of transnational crime, and in response, a socialist leader cries “murder” — with zero evidence and the full confidence that the media will run with it anyway.

Let’s start with what we know: on September 15, U.S. forces struck a vessel suspected of narcotics trafficking. Colombian national Alejandro Carranza, according to Petro, was aboard and is now dead. No credible evidence has been presented to support this narrative. No autopsy. No witness corroboration. No documentation that Carranza was even a fisherman by trade. And yet the headlines scream “Murder!” — because, as Rush Limbaugh so shrewdly put it, it’s the seriousness of the charge, not the evidence, that drives the narrative.


But let’s say, for argument’s sake, that Carranza was indeed a fisherman. That doesn’t exonerate the vessel. The Associated Press — hardly a bastion of MAGA apologetics — published a thorough investigation this year into the growing practice of Venezuelan and Colombian fishermen being roped into cartel operations, lured or coerced by economic collapse and state corruption. If Carranza was on that boat, it raises more questions than it answers.

More importantly, it doesn’t change the strategic equation. The U.S. military, under President Trump’s direction, is finally treating narco-terrorism like the transnational threat that it is. No more wrist-slaps and “strongly worded statements.” Kinetic action is back on the table. The cocaine pipeline — which flows from Colombia through Venezuela and up into our cities and neighborhoods — is now being cut at the source.


That’s the real problem for Petro. For Maduro. For every petty kleptocrat who profits off the misery of addiction, the violence of cartels, and the corruption of their own state. When Trump shut down the financial aid pipeline to Colombia following these accusations, he wasn’t just defending U.S. sovereignty — he was sending a message: you don’t get American dollars while you host, enable, or whitewash the criminal networks that poison ours.

Of course, the “harmless fisherman” story will have legs. Just like the narrative now bubbling out of Trinidad, where anonymous locals claim their fellow islanders were “collateral damage.” The timing, the coordination, the sudden emergence of unverified claims — it’s no coincidence. The talking points were faxed to every newsroom and every activist Twitter account faster than you can say “Glenn Greenwald.”


And Greenwald, bless his heart, is running with the “suspicious military conduct” line — as if he just discovered the Coast Guard’s long-established practice of repatriating low-level drug runners when prosecution isn't worth the cost or operational risk. Never mind that these smugglers were captured at sea, outside U.S. territory, and undoubtedly bled every scrap of intel during their two days in custody. Prosecuting them would require exposing classified sources, international cooperation, and taxpayer dollars to jail mules instead of dismantling the pipeline. But none of that fits the script.

Written by Arthur Higgens - October 20, 2025