Why Trump is blowing up boats off Venezuela

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Christopher and Pixie Scace flaunted their wealth.

27 white limousines and the champagne flowed.

It couldn't be bigger than Pixie's blonde hair.

Spending other people's money, and when they were found out, Pixie paid the price.

This sort of gilded cage that she was a prisoner in.

I'm Mark Humphries.

Search for ABC Rewind and look for SCACE, Fall of a Tycoon, on the ABC Listen app or wherever you get your podcasts.

This podcast was produced on the lands of the Ouabacal and Gadigal people.

I don't know where I thought Trinidad was, but I certainly didn't realize it was like rowboat distance from Venezuela.

The border between Trinidad and Venezuela is

very, very close to the shore.

In some areas, it's just four nautical miles.

The two countries are separated by a very narrow strait known as the Dragon's Mouths.

And it's a beautiful but treacherous place.

This narrow waterway between Venezuela and Trinidad truly is pirate waters.

And he means that literally.

Pirates are a very real threat.

A threat the government here takes seriously.

When the economy is in trouble in Venezuela, and it has been for quite a while now, the dragon's mouths become full of people smugglers, drug traffickers and pirates.

And also, as of quite recently, the US Navy.

On Tuesday, the US military killed 11 people in a strike on a vessel from Venezuela, which the U.S.

alleges was carrying illicit drugs.

Pirates are scary, but they generally don't have Hellfire missiles.

For the second time in two weeks, the American military has destroyed a boat allegedly smuggling drugs from Venezuela into the U.S.

U.S.

President Donald Trump holds Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro personally responsible for the drug trade off his coast.

The Trump administration says Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro is behind the drug smuggling into the US, although Venezuela exports just a fraction of what comes from neighboring countries like Colombia.

Trump has offered a $50 million reward for Maduro's arrest on drug charges.

But what is the point of doing this?

Blowing up individual speedboats heading for the dragon's mouths isn't going to solve America's drug problem.

When you look at this from a historical perspective, it makes a lot more sense.

It follows a playbook that the United States used 35 years ago to topple a Central American dictator they had decided they did not like.

All of these objectives have now been achieved.

The United States is committed to providing General Noriega a fair trial.

Those charged with promoting the distribution of the drugs cannot escape the scrutiny of justice.

On that occasion, the playbook worked spectacularly well.

And the U.S.

Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, seems keen to try it again on Nicolas Maduro.

Nicolas Maduro is an indicted drug trafficker in the United States, and he's a fugitive of American justice.

So, what happened last time?

And should Maduro be watching his back?

I'm Matt Bevan and this is if you're listening.

On the night of the 13th of September 1985, 18-year-old Costa Rican farmer Franklin Vargas was looking for some of his escaped chickens.

He lived in a small town just a few hundred meters away from Costa Rica's border with Panama.

Franklin couldn't find the chickens and started to head home when he saw something in a creek under a wooden bridge.

It was a pair of human legs.

They were poking out of a large U.S.

mailbag, which was submerged beneath the water.

Franklin ran home and told his father, who told the police.

What they pulled out of the bag was the decapitated body of a very tall white man.

It was quickly determined that the very tall white man was Dr.

Hugo Spadifora, Panama's most famous opposition leader.

The violence to Hugo Spadifora's body was quite simply an outrage.

He had been tortured over several hours and then slowly decapitated while still alive.

His head was never found.

And it wasn't long before the Panamanian people decided who was responsible.

The country's dictator, General Manuel Noriega.

Almost immediately, General Noriega was blamed for Spadifora's death, in part for a curious personal reason.

Hugo Spadifora was a very handsome man and a deep personal rival of Noriega's.

Many Panamanians believed that only the general would have wanted Hugo Spatifora so deformed in his death.

General Noriega had been bullied his whole life for his pockmarked skin.

He had been known from school days right up into adulthood as Cara del Pina, or Pineapple Face.

Spatifora, by contrast, kind of looked like prime Elvis Presley.

But Noriega's looks and frankly very unpleasant demeanor hadn't stopped him from gaining power.

He had never had to win a popularity contest.

His mentor, the handsome and charismatic General Omar Torreos, had led a military coup in 1968 and become the de facto leader of Panama.

Noriega had succeeded Turrios when he died, and he had all the charisma of a busted piñata.

But he didn't need to please any voters.

He just had to retain control of the army.

And for that, he had a lot of help.

General Manuel Noriega, head of Panama's Defense Forces and de facto ruler, was a vital U.S.

ally on the payroll of the CIA.

But Noriega was also an ally of the cartel, according to all the available evidence.

When she says cartel, she means the Medellin cartel, led by the kingpin of all kingpins, Pablo Escobar.

With the world's most powerful drug lord and the CIA behind him, he simply appointed puppet politicians to run the civilian government.

The presidential candidate, backed by both Washington and General Noriega, won the election amid widespread allegations of fraud.

Noriega's relationship with the U.S.

was crucial.

At the time, Panama was split by the Panama Canal Zone, a U.S.-controlled strip of land which straddled the Panama Canal.

It was full of American troops and served as the headquarters of the United States Southern Command.

Under the Reagan administration, Southern Command became the nerve center of Washington's war against communism in Central America.

From there, they trained U.S.-friendly armies from El Salvador and Honduras and the contra-rebel group that they hoped would be able to topple the left-wing government in Nicaragua.

Everyone from Noriega to the Contras was involved in the drug trade, but...

Washington saw the war on communism as more important than the war on drugs.

This was what Dr.

Hugo Spadafora was trying to tell the world about.

He claimed that Contra rebels fighting to overthrow the Nicaraguan government were trafficking cocaine and that General Noriega was aiding and protecting them.

This was what got him killed by Panamanian military intelligence.

Now, a U.S.

ally ordering the grotesque killing of a political dissident may not be a big deal for the current U.S.

administration, Koffkoff, Jamal Khoshodji, Koffkoff,

but back in the 1980s, it was too much.

This series of events resulted in a a rethinking of the situation within the administration and a very strong effort on the part of some people, particularly in the White House, to get the administration to adopt a different attitude towards Panama.

They would rather their puppet dictators didn't hide decapitated bodies in U.S.

mailbags.

Thank you very much.

They began to pressure him to step down.

The Panamanian people began to oppose him more publicly, demanding that he follow in the footsteps of other toppled U.S.-backed dictators.

After Marcos of Filipina, the next one is Noriega of Panama.

He refused to go, which put everyone in a bit of an awkward position.

There was possibly no dictator on earth more vulnerable to US intervention than Noriega.

6,000 U.S.

military and civilian Defense Department employees and their families live in Panama City.

U.S.

Southern Command HQ was walking distance from his house.

Within 10 kilometers of Noriega's headquarters, there was a U.S.

naval base, a U.S.

Army base, and two U.S.

Air Force bases.

His only hope was that international disapproval of U.S.

imperialism would be enough to keep the Americans inside those bases.

But what if instead of an invasion, the Americans could just claim it was a police operation?

In a virtually unprecedented move, a court in the United States has indicted Panama's military ruler for drug trafficking.

Nobody would be upset if they just went into Panama to arrest some drug law, right?

General Manuel Noriega faces charges of using his vast powers to convert Panama into a safe haven for international drug traffickers.

It's unlikely he'll ever be brought to trial.

Well, we'll see.

This was the first time the US had ever done this, indicted a sitting leader of a foreign nation for a crime.

Generally, the heads of state of foreign nations have immunity from US law.

But the US argued that this did not apply to Noriega because he wasn't technically the president of Panama.

In response to the indictment, the guy who technically was the president of Panama, Noriega-appointed puppet Eric Arturo Del Vallier, turned on Noriega and tried to sack him.

Noriega arranged for Del Vallier to be replaced.

But opposed President Del Vallier, still in hiding in Panama, effectively called for United States military intervention.

We are sending a brigade-sized force to Panama to augment our military forces already assigned there.

If required, I do not rule out further steps in the future.

President George H.W.

Bush said the additional troops were only there to protect the Americans stationed in Panama.

As more and more American troops poured in, Noriega took the bait.

Noriega declared his military dictatorship to be in a state of war with the United States and publicly threatened the lives of Americans in Panama.

That was enough.

That was enough.

Just after midnight, American troops struck dozens of targets simultaneously from one end of Panama to the other.

The U.S.

quickly defeated the Panamanian army and then they went looking for Noriega.

The US has offered a $1 million reward for his capture.

What followed was a geopolitical Benny Hill sketch.

The world's greatest superpower went hunting for old pineapple face.

Many believed he was hiding in the jungle, organizing resistance.

In each of Noriega's houses, they found piles of cash, hardcore pornography, and cocaine.

Oh.

Actually, turns out the cocaine was just flour for making tamales.

Still,

lots of cash and porn.

They eventually figured out that Noriega was hiding somewhere, he definitely wasn't allowed to bring his porn stash.

Mr.

Noriega had presented himself at the Papal Nunciariat and turned himself in for political asylum.

The Vatican Embassy.

The Americans couldn't go in and get him, and so they decided to encourage him to come out.

The sound of raucous music filled the air, carried from loudspeakers set up by soldiers, perhaps to irritate the people inside.

The loudspeakers were broadcasting the U.S.

military radio station SCN.

Good morning, Panama!

The people here are calling for justice, but Noriega can't hear their cries.

He's still being deafened by rock music.

The tune currently playing, Martha Reeves and the Vandelas, Nowhere to Run.

For three days, the station opened their phone lines and accepted requests for what songs to play for Noriega.

They played Judgment Day by Whitesnake, No More Mr.

Nice Guy by Alice Cooper, Crying in the Chapel by Brenda Lee, and Prisoner of Rock and Roll by Neil Young.

The racket outside the embassy clearly angered the Vatican, who called it American harassment.

But apparently even Jimi Hendrix, Slash and Angus Young can't tread hard enough to make a dictator hand himself in.

They eventually packed up the speakers and reverted back to traditional diplomacy.

Ten days after entering the embassy, Noriega was handed into U.S.

custody.

He spent the rest of his life in prison in various countries and died in 2017.

In that time, Panama became one of Latin America's most successful democracies and gained total sovereignty of the Panama Canal from the US.

And nobody is talking about taking that back at all.

At least they haven't been talking about it for a few months.

This is one of very few examples of the U.S.

successfully and quickly overthrowing a dictator and creating a new, thriving, democratic state.

And there now seems to be a push to repeat the trick in Venezuela.

Venezuela Maduro, the dictator there, has already been charged for drug smuggling.

And who did that happen to?

Hello, Noriega, Panama.

And all the same language used by the Bush administration then to do that is exactly what's being used now.

And look, while there are differences between Noriega and Nicolas Maduro, there are also some key similarities.

To start with, Noriega became the dictator of Panama after the death of his mentor, the charismatic revolutionary Omar Torrios.

And Maduro, his charismatic revolutionary, was Hugo Chavez.

Mourners gathered in the streets to grieve the man who led their country for 14 years.

Opponents derided him as an old-style Latin American dictator who squandered the country's wealth.

But many will mourn his death.

An election is expected to be held within 30 days.

His vice president, Nicolas Maduro, is the likely frontrunner.

At Chavez's funeral, his allies from Iran, Cuba, Russia and China were guests of honor as Nicolas Maduro openly wept at the death of his mentor.

Venezuela's acting president was overcome with emotion.

He described Hugo Chavez as pure and real and alive forever.

Maduro transitioned from acting president to actual president via a very close election in 2013.

Like his mentor Chavez, he's no fan of the United States, and we might look into the reasons for that in another episode.

But this episode is about the methods of American intervention in other countries rather than the morals of those interventions.

At first, the US pressured Maduro's regime by imposing economic sanctions.

That was until he was re-elected in 2018.

The Maduro regime's cruel manipulation of the democratic process to further enrich a handful of supporters at the expense of the Venezuelan people.

The official results of the 2018 election showed a landslide victory for Maduro, but the US and its allies did not buy it.

We in the UK believe that the election in Venezuela was flawed, that it was fraudulent.

In Venezuela, there were massive demonstrations.

Once again, Venezuelans have taken to the streets hoping to bring down President Nicolas Maduro.

In the midst of the protests, the Speaker of the Venezuelan Parliament, Juan Guaido, declared the election invalid and appointed himself as the acting president.

I formally assumed the duties of the national executive as the president of Venezuela.

And that's when things started to get very weird.

Joining us in the gallery is the true and legitimate president of Venezuela, Juan Guaido.

Mr.

President.

The U.S.

and its allies all recognize Guaido as the real head of state.

Please take this message back that all Americans are united with the Venezuelan people in their righteous struggle.

for freedom.

Thank you.

The Trump administration even started talking about Maduro in the past tense.

Today I'm here to talk about the former Maduro regime.

And they charged him with drug crimes.

The indictment of Nicolas Madero and his co-defendants alleges a conspiracy involving an effort to flood the United States with cocaine.

When asked how they could charge a foreign head of state with a crime like this, The Attorney General Bill Barr said...

Well, first, let me just say that we do not recognize Maduro as the president of Venezuela.

Obviously, we indicted Noriega under similar circumstances.

We did not recognize Noriega as the president of Panama.

Bam.

I mean, Maduro still is very much the de facto president of Venezuela, but sure, you can pretend someone else is in charge if you want.

But also, the State Department has offered a reward of $15 million

for the capture, for the conviction of Maduro.

Two months later, a group of American guys tried to collect that reward by rallying a group of Venezuelan expats to try

and they've been captured.

Authorities in Venezuela say they have detained a pair of American citizens working with a US veteran who has claimed responsibility for a failed armed incursion.

It may not entirely surprise you to hear where the guy behind this operation was based.

What we know is that it's a US-based security company in Florida and that he was acting on his own.

The ransom is now up to $50 million.

So you can see some of the similarities between Maduro and Noriega, but here's how they're different.

To start with, the US doesn't have a military base within walking distance of Maduro's house.

Secondly, Venezuela's population is six times the size of Panama's, and its military is significantly more powerful.

They have submarines and fighter jets, which they have been using to buzz American ships in the Caribbean.

Certainly, they are no match for Team America, but they are more than enough to cause a bit of a headache.

Also, while Noriega was very unpopular in Panama and was pals with Pablo Escobar, Maduro does have a supporter base.

And also, like, he's not really a drug lord.

Like, Maduro might be involved in some trafficking, but he's much less El Chapo and a lot more El Crapo.

He's Pablo Escoblar.

The United Nations World Drug Report, for example, says that Venezuela doesn't produce any cocaine at all.

And it says that Venezuela is in the same category as Ecuador, Brazil, Spain, the Netherlands, Belgium, and indeed Panama, in terms of it being a drug transit country.

But here's what the US Secretary of State Marco Rubio says about that.

I don't care what the UN says.

The UN doesn't know what they're talking about.

Maduro is indicted by a grand jury in the southern district of New York.

He seemed to indicate to Fox News that he had more action in mind.

We're not going to have a cartel operating or masquerading as a government operating in our own hemisphere.

He's indicted.

He's a fugitive of American justice.

There's a reward out for his capture.

Question is, what are they going to do about it?

President Trump has deployed a significant naval and air contingent to the Caribbean, and they seem to be daring Maduro to react by taking pot shots at speedboats.

Maduro is considering taking the bait.

In response, Venezuela has launched a massive nationwide militia training program.

It's hard to gauge Trump's appetite for an invasion.

He's generally averse to these kinds of things.

But then again, he might be preparing to play his MAGA rally playlist over loudspeakers in Caracas.

How long do you think Maduro could withstand YMCA and the soundtrack of cats before he handed himself over to the Marines?

I personally think that I would take Guantanamo Bay over a loop of Andrew Lloyd Weber.

If you're listening is written by me, Matt Bever.

This episode was produced by Adair Shepard.

Our supervising producer is Cara Jensen-McKinnon.

We're coming up to a little break in programming.

We're going to be bringing you some episodes from the archive for the next two weeks while we get ready for the race to the finish line for 2025.

We're also going to be doing some preparation for an exciting new series which will be launching in January.

The plan is also for us to do a QA episode soon where we'll try and answer your questions about our show, our stories, and like, you know, the general state of the world at the moment.

If you've got a question you'd like us to try and tackle, send it to ifyourelistening at abc.net.au.

We'll be back with one more Tuesday episode before our break, so we'll catch you on Tuesday.