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NIXON, CLINTON & TRUMP…”Maduro’s Days are Numbered

Fifty years ago, on June 17, 1971, President Richard Nixon officially declared a “war on drugs” inside the briefing room of the White House. President Nixon stated, “To fight and defeat this enemy, it is necessary to wage a new, all-out offensive.”

Since Nixon’s conference, its justice organizations have launched decades of lasting crackdowns on organized crime and drugs. U.S. policies at all levels of justice mimicked this punitive response. So, has it worked? In that era (1971), was additional capital funding provided to fight the “war on drugs”? (Montague, B., 2021/17/06). Subsequently, John Ehrlichman, who was President Nixon’s domestic policy chief and a key figure in the Watergate scandal, informed ” Harper’s Magazine” writer Dan Baum in a 1994 interview that the Nixon administration viewed the anti-war left and Black people as enemies. Nixon, by Ehrlichman’s words stated, that while the government couldn’t outlaw people being against the war or being Black, the government could not interfere with these communities by associating “hippies” with marijuana and “Black people” with heroin, and severely criminalizing both. This strategy (the war on drugs) allowed Nixon’s administration to arrest leaders, raid homes, and vilify these groups publicly. How effective s and credible was Nixon’s “war on drugs” simply to incriminate and discriminate against the culture, class of society, and make people appear guilty of a crime?

Many civil rights advocates and academics argued that the “war on drugs” was not just a public health or safety measure, but a deliberate strategy to target political opponents and racial minorities. President Trump, and with a similar strategy, in October 2017, the White House declared an opioid epidemic (public health emergency), providing access to federal resources and funding to combat the epidemic. Trump ordered Attorney General Jeff Sessions (2017 to 2018) to direct federal prosecutors and pursue the “most serious, readily provable offense.” President Trump’s plight to derail Venezuela’s sanctions by the U.S. on oil is merely embargos the largest oil reserve nation (Venezuela) for Trump’s America, defined as “the war on drugs.”

The United States has a long-arm reach with sanctions agaist Venezuala ( President Nicolás Maduro) that are also imposed by other countries, such as the European Union (EU), Canada, and the United Kingdom. Alongside, these countries willingly can share the wealth of Venezuela’s oil, should the United States conflict escalate into a war or “sanction violations”, Recently, on Wednesday, December 10, 2025 a U.S. military helicopter at sea with American soldiers swiftly roped down onto a ship’s deck armed with rifles and apprehended a large oil tanker ship (Skipper), off the coast of Venezuela., with President Trump confirming the action, involving U.S. military personnel taking in custody and control of the weighed-down tanker. This was an enforced judicial action against the sanctioned Venezuelan oil trade. The US claims the tanker is used to transport sanctioned oil from Venezuela and Iran in an “illicit oil shipping network supporting foreign terrorist organizations”. Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yvan Gil identified the seizure of the “Sklipper” as an “international piracy” and claims U.S. President Donald Trump wants Venezuela’s energy resources.

Though Nixon’s policy (war on drugs) disproportionately hurt Black communities, significantly contributing to mass incarceration and establishing lasting structural violence and racial inequalities throughout America. Is Trump recalling Nixon’s dark memoirs from the grave of White House walls to mimic Nixon’s former policies of the “war on drugs” with a twenty-first century strategy against Venezuela’s corruption and leader Nicolás Maduro? Or, a “war for oil?”

The “war on drugs,“ referred to in the 21st century as the “war on cartels,” in contexts of military intervention and counterterrorism, is also a global anti-narcotics campaign led by the United States. “Plan Colombia” was a U.S. foreign and military aid package and diplomatic initiative aimed at combating Colombian drug cartels and left-wing insurgent groups, conceived in 1999 by the administrations of Colombian President Andrés Pastrana Arango and U.S. President Bill Clinton, and signed into law in the United States in 2000^.

The official objectives of Plan Colombia were to end the Colombian armed conflict by increasing funding and training of Colombian military and paramilitary forces and creating an anti-cocaine strategy to eradicate coca cultivation. As a result, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) lost much of its power against the Colombian government. limiting its military effect on cocaine production. Thus, the U.S. reported that cocaine production in Colombia dropped 72% from 2001 to 2012, contradicting UN sources, which found no change in cocaine production at that same time. Since a new program “Peace Colombia” (Paz Colombia) seeks to provide Colombia with aid after the implementation of the Peace Agreement in 2017 with the FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia ).

President Donald Trump’s approach to drug policies, often described as a “war on drugs” by critics and the President’s hardline position alongside his administration since taking office in January 2017. Specific policies and a significant shift from the previous administration’s focus on harm reduction. Attorney General Jeff Sessions ( 2017 to 2018), displayed a rapid demonstration alongside a league of prosecutors against drug and orruption offense, reversing Obama-era reforms aimed at reducing mandatory minimum sentences for nonviolent drug offenders. Meanwhile, in October 2017, the White House declared an opioid epidemic (public health emergency), providing access to federal resources and funding to combat the epidemic. The administration additionally focused on securing U.S. borders, ports of entry, and waterways to cut down on the supply of illicit drugs entering the country. In a more recent development during President Trump’s second term, the administration formally declared in October 2025 that the U.S. is in a “non-international armed conflict” with drug cartels, authorizing military strikes–“as observed by networks striikes in international waters against Venezuelan vessels,” within the Caribbean and Pacific Oceans. In a previous article (rdwriter1, 2025/09/12), SEE: War on Drugs or Oil), an ongoing socioeconomic and political crisis has reigned in Venezuela since the presidency of Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías, a Venezuelan politician, revolutionary, and military officer who was the president of Venezuela from 1999 until he died in 2013. Since Venezuela sharply worsened during the presidency of Chavez’s successor, Nicolás Maduro.

References

Lindsey, B. Debusmann B, 12/11/2025, What we know about US seizure of oil tanker off Venezuela. (Wednesday, 12/10/25) Published by: Yahoo Online News. Permalink: https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/know-us-seizure-oil-tanker-113619093.html.

Montague, B. 06/17/2021. 50th anniversary of war on drugs: It never worked. Different approach needed. Published by :L News & blogs. Permalink: https://enditforgood.com/content/50th-anniversary-of-war-on-drugs-it-never-worked-different-approach-needed/?gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=20202262318&gbraid=0AAAAApeUBgIkGFEDDPW0xGBeMkB3iFfVW&gclid=CjwKCAiA0eTJBhBaEiwA-Pa-hb8UgapzOhBZ3K9qeKt_wlOYFHt1cO8XkDH_CV_yL9MaCJ0ODjHfBxoCokwQAvD_BwE .

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