This old shark loves the smell of narco-blood in water in the morning. ]
There are a couple of highly charged buzzwords and faux narratives that the turdworldist communist sympathizers like to throw around in order to draw out knee-jerk emotional responses and kill any fact-based discussion. Just by bringing up these sets of widely available statistics you stomped around half of the presented whatabout-isms and detractions back into the worm infested soil already. Yes, Venezuela is textbook example of a narcostate and only bad faith posters would claim otherwise. Chapeau to you for taking the time to make that clear.
There is more of course, which in this case is linking the communist bloc in general and the Chavista-FARC/ELN connection in particular. The FARC, which is and has been by far the biggest cocaine producing entity in Colombia since forever, is a Soviet creation which was the main recipient of covert USSR aid in Colombia up until 1991. After the fall of the USSR that burden shifted to Cuba and later Venezuela even though in absolute numbers financial aid went down considerably in the 90s. In the 2000s and 2010s the Nicaraguan Sandinistas and even Mexican Cartels became invested too in FARCs illicit business and hence it's political survival.
Up till this day the Castro-Chavista regimes see FARC and ELN as tools for destabilization in what once was the US' main ally in the region. So does Russia bytheway. Viktor Bout, the new e-hero of the Low IQ Right, was nabbed in a DEA sting operation in 2008. Lil Vick was and is obviously a liaison of the Kremlin, and routinely provided arms to al Qaida, the Taliban, African dictators and communist guerillas around the world. The DEA caught Bout setting up the transfer of 800 Isla manpads+ other weapons to the FARC, with the stated aim that these manpads could be used to 'shoot down US helos in Colombia'. 'We have the same enemy', Bout told his FARC counterparts as he readied the weapons deal, unfortunately for him it was a DEA agent he was talking to. Few years ago Bout got released as part of the Brittany Griner deal by the retarded Biden Administration.
The FARC and ELN are also political bargaining chips to be utilized when things get rough. Aka right now, even though the Colombian angle has lost much of its value, US is tightening the screws from the Caribbean instead. On top of that the narco-commie ELN/FARC have become a sheer necessity for especially Caracas due to decades of economic mismanagement. The Venezuelan regime needs the funds received from narcotrafficking+ smuggling for the Venezuelan state's survival, the personal enrichment doesn't hurt either.
The Venezuelan-Colombian border area is a haven for smugglers. Narcotics, booze and cigarettes are transported into Venezuela and cheap oil, diapers, medicine and other ordinary stuffs cross into Colombia, the latter is due to strict price controls in Venezuela which creates the price differences. The FARC and ELN now dominate these borderlands, and they receive support from the Maduro regime and are have their base camps in Venezuela. Former Colombian President Alvaro Uribe in 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2013 already accused Chavez of harboring FARC and ELN, that hasn't changed one bit in 2025.
Venezuela is a vital base of operations for the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), and three of its seven blocs have a presence there.
insightcrime.org
This is a textbook commie double play bytheway, the Colombian Army bombed FARC camps located in Ecuador in 2008 already. Ecuador back then was led by a Moscow aligned Chavez-lite sucker called Rafael Correa. Correa nowadays works full time for Russia's main propaganda channel RussiaToday, big shocker. Another big shocker: in Operacion Fenix the FARC's number 2 Raul Reyes was killed, man could walk around unbothered in Ecuador up until the day US supplied missiles sent him to his maker. Fun fact, US intelligence was key to this mission and it was a personal phone call (satellite phone) from Hugo Chavez to Raul Reyes that gave away the latter's whereabouts.
www.elespectador.com/judicial/operacion-fenix-y-muerte-de-raul-reyes-impactos-en-colombia-y-ecuador-article/%3foutputType=amp
After the historic 2016 Colombian peace agreement FARC fractured, with some parts growing closer to Caracas whilst others turned away. The FARC Dissidents as those Brigades that rejected the Peace Accords are called, turned the entire border region into a wild west. This was when Venezuela's economy started tanking big time and Trump Administration 1.0 turned up the heat with heavy sanctions. The FARC Dissidents/Frentes regrouped on Venezuelan soil. In the first year's after 2016 the area around Cucuta saw a major decline in security as it became the hotspot of illicit trade, narco trafficking and smuggling. Later the wars for the narco billions started in Apure, Arauca and Catatumbo, many of the Venezuela aligned groups and cartels started shooting at each other.
Petro in the Casa Narino and the FARC/ELN bouncing back in Colombia. Major wins for Maduro.
In 2022 Trotskyist Petro was elected over the US' supported Uribistas and became the Colombian President. The Venezuela- Colombia entered a new chapter, one of cooperation instead of competition. That's because Marxists of different stripes always flock together in the face of the imaginary 'fascists'. Petro started off slow even renewing deals on US presence on Colombian soil yet has since mid 2023 started speedrunning Colombia out of the US sphere influence. Total blunder that can be blamed on the impotent Biden Administration, literally throwing billions of USD in investments out the window. Petro is going full loony and was last week openly calling for sedition in the USA whilst attending the UN General Assembly. Man was booted back to Colombia and had his visas revoked yet should have gotten imprisoned.
The facts speak for themselves, Venezuela is a massive narcostate, one that aligns with Washington's geopolitical adversaries to boot. It's headed by a communist goofball who acts like he's God and who openly threatens US+allies about every other week, and who has been meddling in neighboring countries for decades. The narrative wherein poor Nicky M. gets, SNIF SNIF, framed as a upstanding leader who has become an innocent victim of da evil west is dumb, false, and reeks of dishonesty.
