FLASH
Shkruar nga Pino Arlacchi
In Ecuador, 57% of banana containers leaving Guayaquil and arriving in Antwerp are loaded with cocaine
During my time as head of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), I traveled frequently to Colombia, Bolivia, Peru, and Brazil, but never to Venezuela. There was simply no need.
The Venezuelan government's cooperation in the fight against drug trafficking was among the best in South America, rivaled only by Cuba's record. This makes Trump's narrative of a "narco-state" in Venezuela sound like geopolitically motivated slander.
The 2025 World Drug Report tells a story that is the opposite of the narrative propagated by the Trump administration. Piece by piece, the report dismantles the geopolitical lie built around the "Cartel de los Soles," an entity as mythical as the Loch Ness Monster, but one that is useful in justifying sanctions, blockades, and threats of military intervention against a country that, coincidentally, is home to one of the largest oil reserves on the planet.
A marginal place in the global drug trade
The UNODC 2025 report is very clear and should shame those who have demonized Venezuela through rhetoric. The report only briefly mentions Venezuela, stating that a small amount of Colombian drug production passes through the country on its way to the United States and Europe. According to the UN, Venezuela has consolidated its status as a territory free from the cultivation of coca leaves, cannabis and related crops, as well as from the presence of international criminal cartels.
This document simply confirms the findings of 30 previous annual reports, which did not address Venezuelan drug trafficking, because it does not exist. Only 5% of Colombian drugs transit through Venezuela. In this context, in 2018, while 210 tons of cocaine passed through Venezuela, Colombia produced or trafficked up to 2,370 tons, 10 times more, and Guatemala produced or trafficked 1,400 tons.
Yes, you read that right. Guatemala is a drug corridor 7 times more important than the Venezuelan “narco-state” is supposedly. Yet no one talks about it because Guatemala has historically only accounted for a tiny fraction of the global total, 0.01% of the only drug Trump cares about: oil.
The mythical “Cartel de los Soles”: Hollywood fiction
The “Shoulder Cartel” is a figment of Trump’s imagination. It is allegedly run by the president of Venezuela. Yet it is not mentioned in the report of the world’s leading drug enforcement agency or any other anti-crime agency, European or otherwise. Not even in a footnote. This deafening silence should make anyone with a shred of critical sense reflect. How can an organized crime group powerful enough to justify a $50 million bounty be completely ignored by all the agencies involved in the anti-drug effort?
In other words, what is being touted as a super-cartel worthy of a Netflix series is actually a collection of small local networks, the kind of petty crime found in every country, including the United States, where nearly 100,000 people die each year from opioid overdoses unrelated to Venezuela, all of which have to do with American Big Pharma.
Ecuador, the real center that no one wants to see
While Washington raises the specter of Venezuela, the real drug trafficking hubs are thriving almost unmolested. In Ecuador, for example, 57% of banana containers leaving Guayaquil and arriving in Antwerp are loaded with cocaine. European authorities seized 13 tons of cocaine on a Spanish ship coming from Ecuadorian ports, which are controlled by companies protected by Ecuadorian government officials.
The European Union produced a detailed report on the ports of Guayaquil, documenting how “Colombian, Mexican and Albanian mafia groups operate extensively in Ecuador.” The murder rate in Ecuador has risen from 7.8 per 100,000 inhabitants in 2020 to 45.7 in 2023. Yet Ecuador is rarely mentioned. Is this because Ecuador produces only 0.5% of the world’s oil and its government does not challenge US control of Latin America?
The real drug routes: geography versus propaganda
During my time at UNODC, one of the most important lessons I learned was that geography doesn’t lie. Drug routes follow a clear logic based on proximity to production centers, ease of transportation, corruption of local authorities, and the presence of established criminal networks. Venezuela fails to meet almost all of these criteria.
Colombia produces over 70% of the world's cocaine. Peru and Bolivia cover most of the remaining 30%. The most logical routes to reach the American and European markets are via the Pacific to Asia, via the eastern Caribbean to Europe, and overland via Central America to the United States. Geographically, Venezuela is at a disadvantage on all three main routes, as it borders the South Atlantic. Criminal logistics mean that Venezuela plays only a minor role in the grand theater of international drug trafficking.
Cuba, the shameful example
Geography doesn’t lie, but politics can override it. Even today, Cuba represents the gold standard of anti-drug cooperation in the Caribbean. Although it is an island not far from the coast of Florida, a theoretically perfect base for trafficking drugs to the United States, in practice, it is insignificant. I have repeatedly observed DEA and FBI agents admiring the rigorous anti-drug policies of the Cuban communists.
Chavist Venezuela has consistently followed the Cuban model in the war on drugs, inaugurated by Fidel Castro himself, which includes international cooperation, territorial control and the suppression of criminal activities. Neither Venezuela nor Cuba has ever had large areas of land cultivated with cocaine and controlled by organized crime.
The European Union (EU) has no vested interest in Venezuelan oil, but it is interested in combating the drug trafficking that affects its cities. The EU has produced its European Drug Report 2025. The document is based on real data, not geopolitical wishful thinking, and does not mention Venezuela even once as a corridor for the international drug trade.
This is the difference between honest analysis and a false and offensive narrative. Europe needs reliable data to protect its citizens from drugs, so it produces accurate reports. In contrast, the United States seeks justification for its oil policies, and therefore produces propaganda disguised as intelligence.
According to the European report, cocaine is the second most used drug in the 27 EU countries, and the main sources of supply are clearly identified: Colombia for production, and Central America and various routes through West Africa for distribution. Venezuela and Cuba simply do not appear in this picture.
Yet Venezuela is systematically demonized, contrary to any principle of truth. In his post-resignation memoir, former FBI Director James Comey revealed the unspoken motives behind US policy toward Venezuela. Trump told him that Maduro’s government was “sitting on a mountain of oil that we should buy.” This is not about drugs, crime or national security. It is about oil that the US would rather not pay for.
It is Donald Trump who deserves an international reward for the crime of "systematic defamation against a sovereign state aimed at appropriating its oil resources." / Adapted from Ocnal /
Pino Arlacchi was Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations Office in Vienna and Executive Director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).
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