Trump’s armada off Venezuela’s coast is a hint to President Maduro

Until recently, control of drug trafficking was left to the lightly armed US coast guard. Now, Mr Maduro has been alleged by the US administration to be head of the Cartel of the Suns, a crime syndicate recently reclassified by America as a terrorist organisation. A counternarcotics operation has thus been rebranded as a counterterror mission. This suggests Operation Southern Spear, announced by the renamed Department of War, may take on a broader scope. There are echoes here of past US interventions in Latin America, Washington’s self-declared backyard since the proclamation of the Monroe Doctrine in 1823. Little wonder that…