not the first time

on the twentieth of december 1989 george herbert walker bush sent u s troops into panama to arrest manuel noriega the "superem leader" on suspicion of smuggling drugs into the united states ( altheough there was some concern he was selling his services to intelligence agencies other than those of the united states as well)...manuel holed up in the vatican embassy and, rather than break down the door, the troops used "psychops"...in other words bright light and loud music...which finally either drove manuel out or he was expelled ( ironically on the third of january 1990 ) and taken into custody, brought to the united states, tried, convicted, and jailed...all without much concern for panama's soverignty...

thirty-six years later to the day and, after weeks of military strikes on boats suspected of smuggling drugs from venezuela ( and what some analysts say are extrajudical murders ) the u s military and "law enforcement" have attacked caracas and siezed nicolas maduro and his wife cilia flores for suspected connection to the cartel de los soles an alleged drug cartel and author of the above attacked boats...a cartel which some analysts ( who seem to choose to remain unnamed ) say does not exist...nosy as i am i downloaded the drug enforcement agency's "2025 national drug threat assessment" and have been having a look...the "transnational criminal organizations" section lists nine drug cartels operating worldwide...they are the sinaloa cartel, the jalisco new generation cartel, the northeast cartel, the michoacan family cartel, the new michoacan family cartel,the united cartel, and the gulf cartel all in mexico as well as the mara salvatrucha cartel in los angeles...the olny cartel listed working out of venezuela is the tren de aragua cartel...for an agency charged with overseeing the interdiction of ilicit drugs the oversight of a major cartel such as the cartel de los soles with such a prominent figure as nicolas maduro at its heads seems unpardonably unprofessional...which leaves me wondering whether this is all about drug smuggling or who controls venezuela's oil reserves...the coast guard is running down tankers with venezuelan oil and the russians are seeming to offer some asylum...or at least protection in name...geopolitical control of resources seems to me to be a more likely explanation than the existence of some bogus drug cartel...like noriega maduro will go to jail and look for a regime change in venezuela...nothing new about that in the imperial playbook...nicaragua, guatenmala, chile, the dominican republic...it's been done