The world’s largest aircraft carrier is heading toward the Caribbean supported by the rest of its “carrier group” to add even more strength to US forces already menacingly close to Venezuela.

The question is simple: is this really the President? TriumphThe war on drugs in South America?

I doubt. It doesn’t even have a mallet inside to crack nuts.

There are some reasons to doubt the US government’s stated goal of eliminating these so-called “narcoterrorist” gangs that threaten the US. Venezuelaeven after taking out of the equation the type of equipment the military is deploying, which is not what they would need for effective interdiction of drug smuggling.

While the president acknowledges that the synthetic opioid fentanyl is a major cause of death in the United States (which it is) and that it is supplied by drug gangs (which it is), blaming Venezuela for fentanyl production is simply incorrect.

Mexican cartels produce fentanyl with precursors largely supplied from China, and it is from Mexico – the United States’ neighbor – that fentanyl is smuggled directly into the United States across its southern border.

Venezuela is not involved in this fentanyl business in any significant way, and I know this because I have reported from the The fentanyl production laboratories of the Sinaloa Cartel in Mexico.

The Mexican cartels are very proud of their business, and in my experience covering this story over the years, when the drug cartels are proud of something and it makes them a lot of money, like with fentanyl, they don’t share the market with anyone, and certainly not with Venezuela.

President Trump is right that Venezuela is now a major supplier of other illegal drugs, especially cocaine, but they come from countries like Colombia, Peru and Bolivia, which are the largest producers of coca leaf in the world (the coca leaf is what cocaine is made from).

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Venezuela, which borders Colombia, is largely a transit country to the Caribbean, in the same way that Ecuador, which also borders Colombia, is a transit country to the Pacific.

Neither Venezuela nor Ecuador are major drug producers.

Drugs enter Venezuela by land, primarily from Colombia, and then primarily leave the country from ports on the country’s northern coast, and these are the exit points for the ships that the US government has recently attacked and destroyed, along with the crews on board.

President Trump claims that these ships from Venezuela are headed to the United States, but in reality they are mainly headed to the nearby islands of Trinidad and Tobago, and from there they are largely headed to West Africa and Europe, mainly to Spain and Portugal.

Drugs heading to the United States pass through Mexico on the US border or are transported along the Pacific Ocean route through countries such as Ecuador. In this case Venezuela is not involved.

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It is widely accepted that the two most exported drugs from South America are cocaine and marijuana, and the volume of production is staggering.

But the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says synthetic opioids like fentanyl are responsible for most overdose deaths there, and fentanyl is not produced in South America, whatever the president says.

Therefore, one can only conclude that he is either wrong and misinformed, or that he has another motive. I suspect it’s the latter, and that regime change in Venezuela tops the list.