WEBVTT - What is Tren de Aragua and Why is Trump Obsessed With Them? 0:00:01.840 --> 0:00:02.840 Also media. 0:00:06.160 --> 0:00:07.400 Oh, welcome back. 0:00:07.600 --> 0:00:11.320 It could happen here a podcast where I just got 0:00:11.400 --> 0:00:14.120 vaccinated and boy, howdy, the ship this year hits like 0:00:14.120 --> 0:00:15.120 a fucking train. 0:00:15.120 --> 0:00:18.480 It does, I I go vaccinated, it's it's it's a 0:00:18.560 --> 0:00:19.280 rough one this year. 0:00:19.360 --> 0:00:22.799 Oh man, Yeah, fucking RFK Junior was right. 0:00:25.200 --> 0:00:27.640 Broadcasting through the vaccine injury today. 0:00:27.760 --> 0:00:31.520 Yeah, that's right. I've received my vaccine injury. I'm complaining 0:00:31.560 --> 0:00:35.199 to the board. Oh man, I'm gonna nap after this. 0:00:35.360 --> 0:00:39.879 But first, how about we talk about fucking trendy Aragua, 0:00:40.080 --> 0:00:44.519 the fucking narco criminal group that President Trump is currently 0:00:44.760 --> 0:00:47.560 justifying blowing up boats in the middle of international waters 0:00:47.600 --> 0:00:48.560 as a result. 0:00:48.240 --> 0:00:51.839 Of Yeah, it's great. It's a good thing that we 0:00:51.960 --> 0:00:57.760 are now killing civilians in countries where we are not 0:00:57.840 --> 0:00:59.400 at war with It's great. 0:01:00.120 --> 0:01:00.360 Yeah. 0:01:00.440 --> 0:01:02.360 This has been something Stephen Miller had been talking about 0:01:02.400 --> 0:01:04.759 since the first Trump administration, you know, and had talked 0:01:04.800 --> 0:01:07.240 with like back when the military was willing to push 0:01:07.280 --> 0:01:09.080 back against Trump more. People would be like, what you 0:01:09.160 --> 0:01:11.160 what the fuck are you talking about? We can't launch 0:01:11.200 --> 0:01:14.360 strikes at just like random boats, and Steve Miller be like, 0:01:14.400 --> 0:01:14.720 why not? 0:01:15.000 --> 0:01:15.840 And now they're doing it? 0:01:16.080 --> 0:01:20.680 Yeah, And this group, this criminal cartel out of Venezuela 0:01:21.000 --> 0:01:24.480 has been the current justification. As we'll talk about, most 0:01:24.520 --> 0:01:27.920 of what is said about this trendy Aragua by the 0:01:27.959 --> 0:01:31.920 administration about you know, their role in smuggling drugs in 0:01:31.920 --> 0:01:35.880 the United States is either just completely invented or massively exaggerated. 0:01:36.520 --> 0:01:39.479 It is a really interesting group. They have a fascinating 0:01:39.720 --> 0:01:44.600 like history. The literal meaning is train of Arugua. Sorry, 0:01:44.640 --> 0:01:47.280 And it started out with like labor unions that were 0:01:47.319 --> 0:01:49.880 working on a railway project. It was going to be 0:01:49.920 --> 0:01:54.360 connecting central and western Venezuela together. And as has happened 0:01:54.400 --> 0:01:58.520 in history, what started as like labor union organizing wound 0:01:58.560 --> 0:02:02.120 up kind of morphing into a direct criminal activity. 0:02:02.400 --> 0:02:02.680 Yeah. 0:02:02.720 --> 0:02:05.840 The guy who's generally credited as the founder, although that's 0:02:05.920 --> 0:02:09.480 kind of flattening things a little bit, is Hector Guerrero Flores, 0:02:09.600 --> 0:02:12.760 known as Nino Guerrero, and he he got put in 0:02:12.800 --> 0:02:15.919 for seventeen years for murder and drug trafficking at this 0:02:16.040 --> 0:02:19.720 prison called tokron Am I I am saying that, right, James, How. 0:02:19.960 --> 0:02:22.239 Do we see to Coron Yeah, Sarenaxin. Yeah, there's a 0:02:22.240 --> 0:02:24.960 little accent over the second. Oh, as you go up 0:02:25.000 --> 0:02:29.440 with down up to Coron. Thank you, James. 0:02:30.160 --> 0:02:30.440 Yeah. 0:02:30.480 --> 0:02:32.840 And so this one of the things that's fun about 0:02:32.840 --> 0:02:35.079 this is that this prison where they start loading these 0:02:35.080 --> 0:02:39.000 guys up, becomes so heavily organized, and it eventually turns 0:02:39.000 --> 0:02:41.080 from being like a prison in the traditional sense to 0:02:41.120 --> 0:02:45.200 more being like a tiny independent city that the gang 0:02:45.280 --> 0:02:45.880 is based out of. 0:02:45.919 --> 0:02:47.160 It acted as their fortress. 0:02:47.160 --> 0:02:52.200 They established like nightclubs in it, and you know, luxury facilities, 0:02:52.400 --> 0:02:55.239 and like leaders of the gang more or less came 0:02:55.280 --> 0:02:57.959 and went as they pleased, went back to their families, 0:02:58.520 --> 0:03:01.160 and it was not really what you'd think of as 0:03:01.200 --> 0:03:03.320 a prison in the traditional sense for a lot of 0:03:03.320 --> 0:03:07.320 these guys. For a while, a payment system was created 0:03:07.440 --> 0:03:10.160 in order to like basically you would inmates would pay 0:03:10.200 --> 0:03:12.880 for protection or for access to the nicer aspects of 0:03:12.919 --> 0:03:16.240 the prison called the cause. And if you didn't pay, 0:03:16.440 --> 0:03:19.680 you know, they had various ways of physically abusing you. 0:03:19.800 --> 0:03:22.560 There's a good article in Small Wars Journal that talks 0:03:22.600 --> 0:03:25.560 about the origins and the impact of this group, and 0:03:25.680 --> 0:03:28.519 it quotes someone from inside the prison is saying, the 0:03:28.520 --> 0:03:30.120 first time you don't pay, they shoot your wrist, the 0:03:30.160 --> 0:03:32.160 second time your ankle, the third time, and you face 0:03:32.200 --> 0:03:35.320 the death penalty. So, like you're talking like pretty traditional 0:03:35.360 --> 0:03:39.680 criminal gang stuff, right, Yeah. So the journey of this 0:03:39.760 --> 0:03:44.480 group from gang that's major in Venezuela to gang that's 0:03:44.560 --> 0:03:47.840 kind of operating in larger and larger chunks of South 0:03:47.840 --> 0:03:51.840 America followed a pretty natural path where they got involved 0:03:51.920 --> 0:03:55.200 in more kinds of smuggling and more kinds of trafficking 0:03:55.680 --> 0:03:59.360 over the years, started setting up operations in other parts 0:03:59.360 --> 0:04:02.160 of South America Eca. But one of the things that 0:04:02.200 --> 0:04:04.800 the gang has sort of done is you've got this 0:04:05.000 --> 0:04:08.080 kind of process by which they have these local affiliates 0:04:08.080 --> 0:04:12.200 who are not directly associated with the gang in like 0:04:12.600 --> 0:04:16.040 the strict hierarchical sense, and that it's not literally the 0:04:16.080 --> 0:04:18.680 gang sending an official into another state. It's more like 0:04:18.760 --> 0:04:22.320 franchising is kind of the way things work, and you 0:04:22.360 --> 0:04:24.440 have different local groups, some of whom are not even 0:04:24.440 --> 0:04:29.400 connected in any way to the original organization, claiming a 0:04:29.440 --> 0:04:32.520 line of descent in order to basically draft off of 0:04:32.560 --> 0:04:35.000 that clout, you know, yeah, yeah, which is kind of 0:04:35.040 --> 0:04:37.800 what you've seen increasingly, and this has led to a 0:04:37.800 --> 0:04:42.000 situation where there's enough claims of trend being involved in 0:04:42.040 --> 0:04:45.240 the United States and other countries that it looks a 0:04:45.240 --> 0:04:49.560 lot like a larger and more centralized criminal organization than 0:04:49.560 --> 0:04:50.880 it actually is in reality. 0:04:51.480 --> 0:04:54.800 Yeah, I think the state understands these things like many states, right, 0:04:54.880 --> 0:04:57.480 like who like with a leader and a distinct authority 0:04:57.520 --> 0:05:02.520 structure and like a direct command. That is not how 0:05:02.640 --> 0:05:04.920 my understanding is that they operate, right because they are 0:05:04.920 --> 0:05:07.240 not mini states there. They are a different entity to that. 0:05:07.839 --> 0:05:11.280 Yeah, And what is your Because you've actually spent time 0:05:11.360 --> 0:05:14.880 reporting and in Venezuela, when did you first become aware 0:05:15.200 --> 0:05:15.880 of trend? 0:05:16.480 --> 0:05:19.159 I mean I became aware of like the fact that 0:05:19.200 --> 0:05:21.080 there were armed gangs and criminals. I mean I was 0:05:21.160 --> 0:05:23.400 robbed at gunpoint when I was in Venezuela, right, so 0:05:23.600 --> 0:05:25.680 that may be aware that that there were people who 0:05:26.360 --> 0:05:29.480 who did crime with weapons, But I wasn't aware really 0:05:29.480 --> 0:05:34.320 of trend that I went until like maybe the twenty twenty. 0:05:34.400 --> 0:05:36.719 I mean, I don't report on organized crime, nor do 0:05:36.800 --> 0:05:39.000 I particularly follow it, right, But I take an interest 0:05:39.000 --> 0:05:42.120 in Venezuelan affairs and as much as I've spent time there, 0:05:42.160 --> 0:05:44.240 and I have like an affinity with the people, and 0:05:44.279 --> 0:05:47.320 I understand that things are getting going from bad to 0:05:47.360 --> 0:05:49.800 worse for them. Under their government. So so I took 0:05:49.839 --> 0:05:53.240 an interest. I guess it was like, are you familiar 0:05:53.240 --> 0:05:57.800 with a Naco Sobrinos affair? No, okay, Naco Sobrinos is 0:05:57.800 --> 0:06:01.200 like narco nephews. I think they're actually step nephews of 0:06:01.240 --> 0:06:04.920 Maduro if I recall correctly. It doesn't hugely matter. They're 0:06:04.960 --> 0:06:07.279 like part of his family in a mediate and I 0:06:07.279 --> 0:06:11.080 believe they lived in his compound. And they used like, 0:06:11.120 --> 0:06:13.200 I don't want to make statements that are incorrect that 0:06:13.240 --> 0:06:16.880 I believe they use a presidential hangar or runway to 0:06:17.080 --> 0:06:21.400 fly a plane to Haiti, which the USDA alleges, and 0:06:21.640 --> 0:06:24.200 it is most likely true that that that that plane 0:06:24.240 --> 0:06:25.520 was stuffed full of cocaine. 0:06:25.720 --> 0:06:28.200 Sure, many such cases, Yeah, many such cases. 0:06:28.240 --> 0:06:30.760 They believe they have diplomatic immunity, which they did not, 0:06:31.920 --> 0:06:33.960 which I believe came as surprise to them at the 0:06:33.960 --> 0:06:36.560 moment of their detention. And so at that point I 0:06:36.600 --> 0:06:38.240 was like, shit, we can get onto this. How the 0:06:38.240 --> 0:06:41.360 Trump administration has like basically alled to Venezuela as a 0:06:41.440 --> 0:06:46.719 narco dictatorship. Certainly there is overlap between organized crime and 0:06:46.760 --> 0:06:50.120 the state, right, it's because the state is so poor 0:06:50.200 --> 0:06:54.000 and so corrupt. That inevitably you will see like overlap 0:06:54.000 --> 0:06:55.279 between organized crime and the state. 0:06:55.360 --> 0:06:56.320 So I guess right. 0:06:56.680 --> 0:06:59.479 Whenever the knack of Sobrino's affair was I was like, okay, 0:06:59.480 --> 0:07:01.400 I need any to sort of be aware of this. 0:07:01.839 --> 0:07:06.000 And of course in my like coverage of immigration, you 0:07:06.080 --> 0:07:10.160 hear of people mostly their talk is just not that 0:07:10.200 --> 0:07:12.600 their life has been made hard by organized crime, if 0:07:12.640 --> 0:07:14.480 I managed so much as their life has been made 0:07:14.520 --> 0:07:20.000 hard by the government completely failing to provide services and 0:07:20.040 --> 0:07:23.360 the complete collapse of the Venezuelan economy. You know, I'm 0:07:23.360 --> 0:07:25.239 not going to ask about it explicitly, but if someone 0:07:25.320 --> 0:07:27.320 mentions it, I sort of take note of it as 0:07:27.400 --> 0:07:29.200 one of the reasons why people are leaving. 0:07:29.280 --> 0:07:30.800 Would you bring up as a really good point, which 0:07:30.840 --> 0:07:33.320 is that twenty fourteen is kind of when the most 0:07:33.360 --> 0:07:37.640 recent Venezuelan economic crisis really kicked off. And two is 0:07:37.760 --> 0:07:40.480 fourteen to twenty eighteen was a major period of growth 0:07:40.920 --> 0:07:43.680 for trend and then twenty eighteen to twenty twenty two 0:07:43.720 --> 0:07:47.840 is when they really started pushing up into and involving 0:07:47.880 --> 0:07:50.640 themselves increasingly in Colombia and the United States as a 0:07:50.680 --> 0:07:53.920 result of like the increased flow of Venezuelans out of 0:07:54.000 --> 0:07:57.320 Venezuela and into other countries and eventually up to the 0:07:57.400 --> 0:08:00.560 US and to some extent, And it's been since twenty 0:08:00.600 --> 0:08:02.920 twenty two that the gang has really been pruned back, 0:08:03.080 --> 0:08:05.480 you know, both as a result of the Venezuelan government 0:08:05.880 --> 0:08:09.240 taking control of the prison again and like basically invading 0:08:09.240 --> 0:08:12.760 it with the military in order to deny them access 0:08:12.840 --> 0:08:16.560 to what had been like their primary centralized, like hub 0:08:16.920 --> 0:08:19.000 of control, and also due to the fact that, like 0:08:19.720 --> 0:08:23.960 after expansion into Columbia and Chile, both criminal organizations and 0:08:24.000 --> 0:08:28.000 the governments of those countries increasingly pushed back against the organization, right, Yeah, 0:08:28.080 --> 0:08:30.280 one of the reasons why they're being targeted. But also 0:08:30.320 --> 0:08:32.640 one of the things that's like fundamentally bullshit about the 0:08:32.679 --> 0:08:37.000 administration's description of what's happening is that we're very much 0:08:37.080 --> 0:08:39.440 talking about a cartel that's on its back feet and 0:08:39.480 --> 0:08:41.360 been on its back feet for the last several years 0:08:41.440 --> 0:08:44.080 as the result of significant reversals in their business and 0:08:44.120 --> 0:08:45.400 in their political situation. 0:08:45.920 --> 0:08:50.040 Yeah, I mean, Columbia has been the Columbian Civil War 0:08:50.120 --> 0:08:52.680 is one of the longest running conflicts in the world. 0:08:52.760 --> 0:08:56.160 But things have changed their substantially, right, in the last 0:08:56.679 --> 0:08:59.400 five or seven years. You know, you have people from 0:08:59.480 --> 0:09:04.000 the FOC disarming. You have the fracture of what was 0:09:04.000 --> 0:09:06.480 previously their territory in some of who were previously their 0:09:06.480 --> 0:09:10.080 militants into other groups, right, And so that has allowed 0:09:10.120 --> 0:09:15.079 the state there to continue its conflict against what remains 0:09:15.120 --> 0:09:17.600 of that and also to clamp down other groups. Right. 0:09:17.640 --> 0:09:22.080 And evidently, like the flow of drugs, United States relies 0:09:22.120 --> 0:09:28.000 on the complicity or inability to stop it of many states. 0:09:28.160 --> 0:09:31.959 And yeah, we've seen like a concerted effort and also 0:09:32.040 --> 0:09:35.440 like the attempts of the United States to stop smuggling. 0:09:35.520 --> 0:09:35.679 Right. 0:09:35.760 --> 0:09:38.640 So, I guess if people aren't familiar, we should just 0:09:38.679 --> 0:09:43.160 explain the US DHS, of which the United States Coast 0:09:43.200 --> 0:09:45.440 Guard is part. I think a lot of people aren't 0:09:45.480 --> 0:09:48.040 aware the Coast Guard is part of DHS claims a 0:09:48.200 --> 0:09:52.199 universal jurisdiction or jurisdiction at least in areas where drugs 0:09:52.200 --> 0:09:54.920 are being smuggled to the United States, Right, So the 0:09:55.000 --> 0:09:57.439 US Coast Guard had a role to play in this 0:09:57.600 --> 0:10:00.000 in the I guess interdiction is the word they would 0:10:00.160 --> 0:10:03.480 use of drugs coming to the United States. I probably 0:10:03.480 --> 0:10:06.040 haven't got data on this. In the last year or so. 0:10:06.240 --> 0:10:08.480 But it certainly was the case that most drugs entering 0:10:08.520 --> 0:10:11.600 the US entered through ports of entry as opposed to 0:10:11.679 --> 0:10:13.839 like between ports of entry, right, like through the desert, 0:10:13.920 --> 0:10:17.280 through the mountains, and so like these these boats, I 0:10:17.280 --> 0:10:19.640 guess are not just to be clear that they're not 0:10:19.720 --> 0:10:22.040 necessarily going to the United States, and most states are 0:10:22.080 --> 0:10:23.440 not going to United States, and most states are going 0:10:23.480 --> 0:10:25.400 to Mexico and then moving to the United States through 0:10:25.440 --> 0:10:29.400 other methods. But like as the governments both south of 0:10:29.400 --> 0:10:31.599 the United States and in the United States who adapted, 0:10:32.080 --> 0:10:35.000 it's become harder and harder for those people, right, And 0:10:35.080 --> 0:10:37.840 so it's become harder and harder for these criminal organizations 0:10:37.840 --> 0:10:40.079 to make money off these drugs. 0:10:40.320 --> 0:10:43.079 And that's led to, I mean a situation that one 0:10:43.120 --> 0:10:45.520 of the things that they've been accused of being by 0:10:45.559 --> 0:10:48.920 the Trump administration and internationally is essentially an agent of 0:10:49.040 --> 0:10:52.280 the Maduro regime, right, And this is something that certainly 0:10:52.400 --> 0:10:55.280 the Venezuelan government denies. This is not a thing where 0:10:55.280 --> 0:10:57.440 I can you know, entirely give you this is exactly 0:10:57.520 --> 0:11:00.120 what's happened. But it seems accurate to say that as 0:11:00.120 --> 0:11:04.120 an organization, as their their actual like control and power 0:11:04.240 --> 0:11:08.400 have been eroded, they have been utilized increasingly as a 0:11:08.440 --> 0:11:11.160 way to, for example, deal with like dissidents who are 0:11:11.160 --> 0:11:13.520 hostile to the Madeiro regime right as a as a 0:11:13.520 --> 0:11:17.440 deniable asset. In particular, there's been cases that are reasonably 0:11:17.440 --> 0:11:22.040 well documented of dissidents against the Venezuelan regime in Chile 0:11:22.240 --> 0:11:24.960 and Trendy Aragua being used as like assassins to to 0:11:25.080 --> 0:11:28.720 take out dissonance in foreign countries in a deniable manner. Right, Yeah, 0:11:28.720 --> 0:11:31.000 And I mean it looks to me like this has 0:11:31.080 --> 0:11:35.719 kind of increased as their actual ability to directly control 0:11:35.960 --> 0:11:39.319 things and directly contest the regime as a power center 0:11:39.360 --> 0:11:40.200 has been eroded. 0:11:40.720 --> 0:11:43.559 Yeah, it's kind of a classic like I wouldn't say 0:11:43.559 --> 0:11:48.079 that like ideologically aligned, right, but sometimes their interests aligned, Yeah, 0:11:48.200 --> 0:11:53.200 to be clearly, Like trend are one of the sort 0:11:53.200 --> 0:11:56.880 of organized crime institutions in Venezuela, but by. 0:11:56.720 --> 0:11:59.959 Five only one, right, you have, yeah, Trendel. Yeah. 0:12:00.400 --> 0:12:02.840 For example, you have these other groups who have also 0:12:02.920 --> 0:12:07.920 been active in anti government protests, especially since the I'm 0:12:07.960 --> 0:12:11.240 going to use that quote unquote election here in July 0:12:11.320 --> 0:12:14.480 of last year, right, where electoral fraud is widely alleged 0:12:15.040 --> 0:12:17.040 and I documented that in My Daddy and series if 0:12:17.040 --> 0:12:19.840 people want to listen to that. But it's not like 0:12:19.920 --> 0:12:22.720 these two are lot in lockstep. But yeah, like we 0:12:22.760 --> 0:12:25.960 can understand that sometimes that the interest might align and 0:12:26.120 --> 0:12:28.920 in those areas may be beneficial for the regime to, 0:12:29.440 --> 0:12:32.040 like you say, to use them as a deniable asset. 0:12:32.000 --> 0:12:33.400 Right, which does not. 0:12:33.920 --> 0:12:36.359 Like one of the things that's kind of most frustrating 0:12:36.440 --> 0:12:40.079 is hearing them described as central to the smuggling of 0:12:40.160 --> 0:12:44.199 fentanyl into the United States, which, like, even in kind 0:12:44.240 --> 0:12:48.360 of the most elaborate version of this group being utilized 0:12:48.400 --> 0:12:52.960 by the Venezuelan government is fanciful, right, Like, because Venezuela 0:12:53.040 --> 0:12:55.160 just doesn't have that much to do with the smuggling 0:12:55.160 --> 0:12:58.079 of fentidel into the United States. Yeah, Like, Venezuela and 0:12:58.160 --> 0:13:02.000 Venezuelan criminal organizations just aren't that involved in that process. 0:13:02.040 --> 0:13:05.559 That's not where it's coming from, right. Yeah, And we'll 0:13:05.600 --> 0:13:09.319 talk some more about fentanyl, but first, you know what's 0:13:09.559 --> 0:13:25.560 kind of like fentanyl advertising. We're back and we're talking 0:13:25.800 --> 0:13:30.160 about fentanyl. Well, we're talking about like these claims because 0:13:30.160 --> 0:13:33.160 that's the justification for why we need to airstrike these boats. 0:13:33.480 --> 0:13:36.400 The most recent of which we know was boarded by 0:13:36.400 --> 0:13:40.400 another government and had drugs on board. It removed before 0:13:40.440 --> 0:13:41.080 it was struck. 0:13:41.280 --> 0:13:41.680 Oh wow. 0:13:41.880 --> 0:13:45.480 Yeah, and we simply have no idea, no way to verify. 0:13:45.480 --> 0:13:47.680 I have no way to verify what the administration is 0:13:47.679 --> 0:13:48.679 claiming about these boats. 0:13:48.679 --> 0:13:50.240 We're just seeing boats get blown up. 0:13:50.360 --> 0:13:52.960 But yeah, and everybody who's on that boat is no dead, 0:13:53.040 --> 0:13:55.439 so there's not many many people to contradict that story. 0:13:55.520 --> 0:13:58.559 Should we explain like the usual coast Guard process. 0:13:58.120 --> 0:14:00.760 For in addiction? Yeah, I think that's probably good idea. 0:14:00.840 --> 0:14:03.040 So generally, right, what the US Coast Guide is going 0:14:03.120 --> 0:14:06.120 to do is they will have these large vessels from 0:14:06.120 --> 0:14:11.079 which they will launch smaller vessels and helicopters to intercept craft, right, 0:14:11.280 --> 0:14:14.080 like the most kind of I guess like famous charismatic 0:14:14.440 --> 0:14:17.840 other like Colombian like they call them Narco subs. 0:14:18.120 --> 0:14:19.440 There's their semi submarines. 0:14:19.440 --> 0:14:22.520 Actually that they're not like fully submersed, but they that 0:14:22.720 --> 0:14:25.680 much of the vessel is submerged. What the Coast Guard 0:14:25.680 --> 0:14:29.960 would normally do, to my understanding, is to send a 0:14:30.040 --> 0:14:32.720 vessel to intercept them, right, be it a helicopter or 0:14:32.760 --> 0:14:34.640 a boat, or probably both in most cases I would 0:14:34.680 --> 0:14:36.640 imagine tell them to stop. 0:14:36.960 --> 0:14:37.160 Right. 0:14:37.320 --> 0:14:40.520 If they don't stop, the Coastguard will have like a 0:14:40.640 --> 0:14:43.720 sniper who will shoot out the engine of the craft. 0:14:44.000 --> 0:14:44.200 Yeah. 0:14:44.280 --> 0:14:47.280 They will then board, they will entertain the people. They 0:14:47.320 --> 0:14:50.960 will obviously confiscate any drugs that they find, and then 0:14:51.000 --> 0:14:53.480 they will take those people back to their vessel where 0:14:53.480 --> 0:14:56.360 they're detained, and then they'll be tried in the US. Right, 0:14:56.800 --> 0:14:59.440 and then they would normally it's they can't kind of 0:14:59.480 --> 0:15:02.640 scoop up all these ships that they've intercepted or semi 0:15:02.640 --> 0:15:05.440 subs or whatever, so they will normally destroy those and 0:15:05.520 --> 0:15:07.480 scuttle them so they sink to the bottom of the ocean. 0:15:07.920 --> 0:15:09.720 I don't know how many cases they've done this in, 0:15:09.760 --> 0:15:13.560 but that would be the normal procedure for Coast Guard. 0:15:13.560 --> 0:15:15.440 It gets pre twenty twenty five. 0:15:15.520 --> 0:15:17.120 It's got to be fun being a fish near one 0:15:17.160 --> 0:15:20.480 of those vessels, yeah, fishing. 0:15:20.160 --> 0:15:23.800 Getting yeah yeah, yeah. I don't know what they do 0:15:23.840 --> 0:15:25.440 with all the cac And sometimes they bring all the 0:15:25.440 --> 0:15:27.560 cocaine back for a photo op. You see that sometimes 0:15:27.640 --> 0:15:31.360 yeah yeah, yeah, that looks good. Yeah yeah, it's nicely packaged, 0:15:31.440 --> 0:15:34.240 says cocaine or fentanyl on the side or whatever. That 0:15:34.640 --> 0:15:40.160 is my understanding of what was done previously. The strikes 0:15:40.160 --> 0:15:44.240 in the last month have been extremely different, right, Yeah, 0:15:44.280 --> 0:15:47.280 and we're looking at I think fourteen people killed so 0:15:47.400 --> 0:15:49.840 far that we've had confirmed, although those numbers are certainly 0:15:49.920 --> 0:15:53.480 higher than the when you're hearing them, right, because we've 0:15:53.600 --> 0:15:55.240 just had another strike in the last day or so 0:15:55.280 --> 0:15:56.960 that I don't think we have exact numbers on how 0:15:56.960 --> 0:15:58.040 many people were involved. 0:15:58.600 --> 0:15:58.920 Yeah. 0:15:59.120 --> 0:16:02.600 They use, from what I understand, drones from Special Operations 0:16:02.680 --> 0:16:07.040 Command to do these strikes, right, which in itself is 0:16:07.120 --> 0:16:11.960 quite unusual. And then the strikes themselves consisted of did 0:16:12.040 --> 0:16:13.720 they say what I guess it looks like a hell 0:16:13.760 --> 0:16:15.160 fire missile, but I don't know if they've said. 0:16:15.040 --> 0:16:16.720 That looked like health fires to me on the videos 0:16:16.800 --> 0:16:17.480 I've seen. 0:16:17.360 --> 0:16:21.200 Yeah, it's not exactly like high DEPF video, but you 0:16:21.240 --> 0:16:23.040 see them striking like it looks kind of like a 0:16:23.320 --> 0:16:27.040 like a it's a speedboat, right, like it's a surface vessel. 0:16:27.120 --> 0:16:30.040 It's not a not a semi sub or a submarine. 0:16:30.480 --> 0:16:33.080 It's unclear like what has happened before, at least I 0:16:33.080 --> 0:16:36.040 haven't seen any reporting or what happened before, like whether 0:16:36.040 --> 0:16:37.520 they got in order to stop I think in one 0:16:37.520 --> 0:16:40.320 case they had turned around right having noticed a drone 0:16:40.360 --> 0:16:44.560 and begun returning towards the coast, towards Venezuela, I guess, 0:16:45.080 --> 0:16:47.800 And they were still struck. And it appears that in 0:16:47.840 --> 0:16:53.000 at least one case, the drone struck them again, like 0:16:53.040 --> 0:16:56.520 it hit them once and then returned for a second 0:16:56.600 --> 0:16:59.360 run to hit I guess the survivors. 0:17:00.200 --> 0:17:00.840 Yeah. 0:17:00.880 --> 0:17:03.600 And you know, there's a couple of facts that go 0:17:03.720 --> 0:17:08.320 alongside what we actually know and versus what the administration's claiming. 0:17:08.960 --> 0:17:12.680 About eighty percent of people involved in the smuggling of 0:17:12.680 --> 0:17:16.080 illegal drugs into the United States are US citizens, and 0:17:16.119 --> 0:17:18.800 then of the remaining twenty ish percent, a chunk of 0:17:18.840 --> 0:17:21.840 those are resident legal aliens, and the chunk are a 0:17:21.880 --> 0:17:26.720 mix of undocumented people, non citizens, or people whose status 0:17:26.800 --> 0:17:29.800 is unknown or extra diited aliens. Right like, this is 0:17:29.840 --> 0:17:33.440 based on the United States Sentencing Commissions data from twenty 0:17:33.440 --> 0:17:37.040 twenty four, and about eighty five percent of drugs that 0:17:37.080 --> 0:17:39.000 are brought into the United States are smuggled in at 0:17:39.040 --> 0:17:40.919 ports of entry. And this makes complete sense if you 0:17:40.920 --> 0:17:43.720 think about it, in part because it's pretty easy to 0:17:43.840 --> 0:17:45.879 track when you've just got like a boat trying to 0:17:45.880 --> 0:17:49.679 smuggle stuff into the country illicitly and the people who 0:17:49.720 --> 0:17:51.280 are on that boat. If the art citizens have no 0:17:51.400 --> 0:17:54.360 right to enter the country inherently, as opposed to citizens 0:17:54.400 --> 0:17:56.560 who do have a right to enter, and ports of 0:17:56.680 --> 0:17:59.359 entry where there's a shitload of you want to heighten 0:17:59.400 --> 0:18:03.080 plane sight with this stuff? Right, Like it just makes sense, 0:18:03.400 --> 0:18:06.600 Like would you rather if you were smuggling a huge 0:18:06.640 --> 0:18:09.000 amount of illegal shit? Would you rather be on your 0:18:09.040 --> 0:18:12.120 own with a van or a vehicle full of very 0:18:12.160 --> 0:18:15.520 illegal drugs or would you rather be like hiding amongst 0:18:15.520 --> 0:18:19.040 the billions of tons of shit that gets taken to 0:18:19.119 --> 0:18:21.920 this country every single year, right, Yeah, which is why 0:18:22.640 --> 0:18:25.560 just the reality of the data is so completely different 0:18:25.720 --> 0:18:27.880 than the administration makes it out to be. And obviously, 0:18:28.200 --> 0:18:31.480 foreign criminal organizations are heavily involved in the smuggling of 0:18:31.480 --> 0:18:34.120 illegal drugs, particularly fentanyl in the United States, but we're 0:18:34.119 --> 0:18:36.800 talking primarily about like the Sinaloa cartel and then different 0:18:37.080 --> 0:18:40.679 criminal organizations involved in the smuggling a fentnyel out of China, right, 0:18:40.680 --> 0:18:42.400 which is where a lot of fentanyl comes from. 0:18:42.440 --> 0:18:43.240 As opposed to. 0:18:43.240 --> 0:18:46.840 Again, Venezuela, the government here is going for low hanging fruit. 0:18:46.960 --> 0:18:49.840 I think as The conclusion I'm driven to just every 0:18:49.840 --> 0:18:52.240 time I read about this is that, like, there doesn't 0:18:52.240 --> 0:18:55.919 seem to be a better reason for focusing on this organization, 0:18:56.040 --> 0:18:58.359 which really is just not that involved in crime in 0:18:58.359 --> 0:19:01.399 the United States nearly to the that groups like the 0:19:01.400 --> 0:19:02.479 scene lower Cartel are. 0:19:02.840 --> 0:19:06.639 Yeah, I mean, it offers a chance to demonize Venezuelan people, right, 0:19:06.680 --> 0:19:10.000 and Venezuelan people made up a large number of the 0:19:10.040 --> 0:19:12.360 people who came to the United States to seek asylum 0:19:12.520 --> 0:19:16.480 under Biden, because like, if we do believe that these 0:19:16.520 --> 0:19:18.600 like the word in Spanish would be like a megabandas 0:19:18.640 --> 0:19:22.120 like mega gangs are a serious threat to the well 0:19:22.119 --> 0:19:24.760 being of people in the United States, imagine how much 0:19:24.800 --> 0:19:26.400 more of a threat they are to the well being 0:19:26.400 --> 0:19:30.040 a people in Venezuela, right, Right, And that combined with 0:19:30.119 --> 0:19:34.879 a government which objectively sucks and which also uses extra 0:19:34.960 --> 0:19:39.360 judicial violence, right, including in its battle against these gangs, 0:19:39.920 --> 0:19:43.240 leads people to want to leave and when they come here, 0:19:43.880 --> 0:19:47.080 the United States, especially the Trump Recheme, has been engaged 0:19:47.119 --> 0:19:51.200 in this demonization of migrants. Right, this offers a very 0:19:52.040 --> 0:19:54.920 convenient narrative for that to say that these people are 0:19:54.920 --> 0:19:58.720 bringing crime here. The vast majority of them are doing 0:19:58.760 --> 0:20:03.520 the exact opposite. They are coming here because the state 0:20:03.560 --> 0:20:07.960 in Venezuela has extorted them, and slash or non state 0:20:08.000 --> 0:20:11.000 actors in Venezuela have extorted them. The vast bulk of 0:20:11.040 --> 0:20:14.000 the complaints I hear from Megan for Venezuela about the state, 0:20:14.520 --> 0:20:18.280 they have no interest other than working hard and receiving 0:20:18.680 --> 0:20:21.880 like a decent living wage for that. Yeah, every Venezuelan 0:20:21.920 --> 0:20:25.240 person I spoke to almost burned on when I ask 0:20:25.320 --> 0:20:28.479 what their American dream is, tell you that their American 0:20:28.560 --> 0:20:30.520 dream is to have a job that pays them enough 0:20:30.520 --> 0:20:34.440 to feed their family. Right, Like, we have next to 0:20:34.520 --> 0:20:38.600