Alex Horton

What are they actually accomplishing in the Caribbean?

And then there's this priority that Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Trump, you know, going back to his first administration, you know, they have been fixated on Nicolas Maduro and getting him out of power.

You know, he's backed by Russia.

You know, the U.S.

considers him an adversary in the region and a point of instability.

And they want to see him out of office.

And

These two things are kind of related, but, you know, you have to take a step back and say, well, why are they related?

Because Trump talked about every boat has like so many thousands of deaths.

What he means is fentanyl.

These boats are not carrying fentanyl.

They're carrying cocaine.

Fentanyl precursors come from China.

They go to Mexico where fentanyl is produced.

And then from Mexico, they go to the United States and other markets.

Cocaine comes from two key places, Ecuador and Colombia.

And cocaine that comes from Venezuela is...

If it's not very small numbers produced in the country, it's coming from those two countries as part of an elaborate trafficking operation.

But Venezuela is not a drug player.

Every official I've spoken to about this with experience in the region says Venezuela.