Move over, Monroe Doctrine.
This is the age of eff around and find out (FAFO) for the Western Hemisphere with President Trump.
Witness the festering boil on the South American continent, Venezuela, a self-colonized socialist hellhole effectively run by communist Cuba, with a parade of bad-actor patrons like Russia and China helping it stay afloat in a bid to stick it to Uncle Sam. The oil is mostly gone. All that's left are the drugs -- the cocaine, fentanyl and other poisons being shipped to the U.S. along with thousands of gangsters and refugees.
Now that President Trump has blown a narcoboat coming out of Venezuela loaded with drugs bound for the U.S. out of international waters, and said more were coming.
Instead of cleaning up its act and seeking talks, Venezuela has opted to go for the confrontational route with the U.S.
It won't end well for them.
Already it's bad. Earlier this week, Venezuela's auto-proclaimed president, Nicolas Maduro, sent two F-16 jets piloted by two military actors so old they're familiar to the U.S. Navy, to dangerously buzz a U.S. destroyer conducting narcoterror operations off the Venezuelan coast in international waters.
1/2) Los dos pilotos venezolanos de F-16 que imprudentemente amenazaron al destructor estadounidense ayer fueron Cruz Alfredo Esteves Silva, de 44 años, y Alfredo Tanzella Rangel, de 55 años. Los conocemos bien. pic.twitter.com/RHNdht1DBc
— Marshall S. Billingslea (@M_S_Billingslea) September 5, 2025
The newly named U.S. War Department warned them that the flights were provocative.
Notice that it doesn't say "Venezuelan military aircraft" nor "the Venezuelan government is strongly advised ... " https://t.co/vsHrn6kXpm
— Juan Nagel (@juannagel) September 5, 2025
The response was to send 10 F-35s to Puerto Rico, a few hundred miles from Caracas to help concentrate Maduro's mind.
Venezuelan fighter jets buzzed a U.S. Navy ship in the Caribbean in a show of force, prompting the Pentagon to order several Air Force F-35's fighters to Puerto Rico as part of the military's counter-narcotics mission https://t.co/I2zDyxns98
— Eric Schmitt (@EricSchmittNYT) September 5, 2025
It didn't. Late last night they did it again.
Maduro is testing the US, attempting to provoke a response…a shoot down of a #Venezuela military jet is a far cry from destroying a drugs fast boat. Remember, the Maduro regime is advised by Cubans primarily and also Russians. So this is very calculated and not random or rogue. https://t.co/YNYNV2Xxid
— Eric Farnsworth (@ericfarns) September 5, 2025
Then President Trump weighed in, saying that if they did it again, they were getting shot down.
According to the BBC:
Donald Trump has warned that, if Venezuelan jets fly over US naval ships and "put us in a dangerous position, they'll be shot down".
The president's warning comes after Venezuela flew military aircraft near a US vessel off South America for the second time in two days, US officials told the BBC's US partner CBS News.
The reports follow a US strike against what Trump officials said was a "drug-carrying vessel from Venezuela" operated by a gang, killing 11 people.
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro has said that the US allegations about his country are not true, and that differences between the nations do not justify a "military conflict".
It should have made them think twice, but it hasn't.
Now they get this:
‼️????????????????The U.S. naval fleet is advancing towards the coast of Venezuela.
— Defense Intelligence (@DI313_) September 6, 2025
Everything indicates that Washington is about to attack and enter the country, setting off alarm bells throughout the region. pic.twitter.com/4olrkA3jpy
The Venezuelan people will cheer in the streets ????????????????#FreeVenezuela https://t.co/GmrHwWoEoF
— Daniel Di Martino ???????????????? (@DanielDiMartino) September 6, 2025
It's not like they weren't warned.
Marco Rubio laid out the new rules the U.S. was playing by just this week:
????@SecRubio: "I don't care what the UN says. The UN doesn't know what they're talking about ... Maduro is an indicted drug trafficker in the United States and he's a fugitive of American justice." pic.twitter.com/SRrQg7SyMW
— Department of State (@StateDept) September 4, 2025
J.D. Vance served as Trump's wingman on the social media front, too:
Democrats dont care if your kids die from overdoses.
— 0HOUR (@0HOUR1__) September 6, 2025
People like @krassenstein would rather protect the cartels.
Is he on the payroll of Venezuela?@JDVance pic.twitter.com/rMI2kvqjt1
Others, too:
Where would you like the "proof" to be posted?
— Shipwreckedcrew (@shipwreckedcrew) September 6, 2025
A Govt website?
Facebook?
Embassy Webpage?
Before or after the operation?
Why does the US law enforcement establishment need to "prove" anything to your satisfaction? https://t.co/HqAYVdnteP
Does this sound like an administration that is minded to get involved with truces, talks, and defeats?
They're coming at Maduro and his drug dealers like a buzzsaw, like a big guy with a meat axe, and they only do victory.
Wasn't the U.S. nuclear takeout in Iran a few weeks ago warning enough for them?
Now the Maduroites are hunched over hoping United Nations and regional declarations will save them.
That's a thin reed already snapping. A recent declaration put forward in Maduro's favor by a regional group called CELAC this past week, from Maduro's ally, Colombia's leftist president, Gustavo Petro, was a miserable failure, with only about half the nations signing on, all of them pawns of other states, and a lot of them absolutely refusing to sign.
Here's a list of the nations that said 'hell no':
Países que han desmentido a Petro.
— YO SOY ????????????????✈️ (@ElGanadorHenry) September 5, 2025
Quien publicó un comunicado no oficial de la Celac, apoyando al cartel de los soles.
-Argentina
-Costa Rica
- Ecuador,
- El Salvador
- Guyana
- Jamaica
- Paraguay
- Perú
- Trinidad y Tobago
A couple of them -- Guatemala and the Dominican Republic, which supposedly signed the CELAC declaration even angrily denied they ever signed:
Ayer en la CELAC, el gobierno colombiano se inventó un documento para apoyar a Maduro y Petro decidió sumar a países que nunca lo habían firmado, sin consultar.
— Agustín Antonetti (@agusantonetti) September 5, 2025
Guatemala y República Dominicana ya salieron a desmentir que nunca apoyaron el documento.
Es una vergüenza mundial. pic.twitter.com/UXQS4UAq5j
... which apparently is the sort of thing Petro has a pattern of doing since his narcoguerrilla days, according to an old leftist narcoguerrilla colleague:
Carlos Gaviria quien militó con Petro en el M19 contaba que es un crápula (dicho por uno de los suyos) y que solía modificar las actas de los acuerdos en toda reunión. Así que el que ha sido no deja de ser.
— Sarita Salazar ✝️ (@sarasalazar) September 5, 2025
Google Translate:
Carlos Gaviria, who was a militant alongside Petro in the M19, said that he is a scoundrel (as stated by one of his own) and that he used to alter the minutes of agreements in every meeting. So, what one has been, one does not cease to be.
He always was the dirtbag. Suffice to say, Petro, made a hash of it.
Now the Russians and Cubans must be scrambling to come up with some kind of response to counter what's coming.
And it doesn't seem to be changing anything for the Trump steamroller coming at their crummy little pawn in Caracas.
It's called FAFO, and Nicolas Maduro has stepped up. He's about to be the next fool and he won't like the result.
Image: Screen shot from X video.