Author	: Bill Kochman
Publish	: Jan. 12, 2026
Update	: Jan. 12, 2026
Parts	: 09

Synopsis:



Continuing our discuss from part two, just as China could potentially blockade Guam, this is basically the very same thuggish strategy that the Trump administration is now using against Venezuela. As we all know, blockades, embargoes and sanctions are a powerful way to apply pressure, and to break a country financially; and that is precisely what President Trump is attempting to do. He will not destroy Venezuela's economy completely, of course, but he will force them to say "Uncle!" He will bring them to the edge of the abyss so that they will yield to the United States. Trump obviously knows that the best way to hurt a person -- or a nation -- is via their pocket book, and in this case, oil exports fills the Venezuelan pocket book.

So that is why Mr. Trump, Hegseth, Noem, Rubio and Miller are now so confident that they are in charge in Venezuela, and acting so haughtily, and why Delcy Rodríguez needs to bow to America's demands, if she really expects to survive, and not meet a similar fate as Maduro. It is becoming quite apparent that unless Venezuela yields to American demands, the current military blockade will destroy the Venezuelan economy, because they need that oil revenue. That is why Ms. Rodríguez has begun to comply and cooperate so quickly with the United States. As proof of this, consider the following quotes I extracted from a The Washington Times news article with the headline "Oil gives the U.S. major leverage over Venezuela. How will the Trump administration use it?". This article was published six days ago on January 5, 2026:

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"Venezuela's state-run oil company is reducing production as a U.S. military blockade severely strains the country's fuel storage capacity, underscoring the Trump administration's significant economic leverage over the new leaders in Caracas.

Oil exports fund more than half of Venezuela's annual federal budget, meaning a continued blockade would have devastating economic impacts for the country. Still, Venezuela has indicated that it may try to circumvent that blockade. At least 16 Venezuelan oil tankers appear to have attempted to evade the U.S. quarantine and sail on to their destinations, The New York Times reported Monday."

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In other words, because they cannot sell the oil they have already pumped out of the ground due to the US blockade, they need to slow down extracting and producing more oil, because there is simply no place to store it. Their tanks are already full. So basically, the United States is now in full control of the situation in three ways through its implementation of a full military blockade. It is cutthroat tactics:

1. The USA forces Venezuela to do what America wants by restricting their oil exports and oil revenue.

2. The USA decides who and who cannot purchase Venezuelan crude oil.

3. The USA hurts its enemies and competitors such as China, Russia and Iran.

Sadly, as embarrassing as this is, the blind, mesmerized and spellbound MAGA crowd just doesn't get it. In fact, they've not hid the fact regarding how happy they are, and how proud they are, that their great messiah-like president has taken on such a great leadership role, and put that nasty Nicolás Maduro in his proper place. I see them boasting about it all over the social networks. Many of them are supposed to be Christians, and yet they can't even see how very wrong this situation is. In fact, they can't even see that what just happened is really about Venezuelan oil, and the projection of American power, as well as the greedy accumulation of more American wealth at the expense of others, and NOT just about drug boats and corrupt Latin American leaders. They have swallowed the bait hook, line and sinker.

As I mentioned earlier, please understand that I'm NOT saying that Nicolás Maduro is not a wicked man. After all, there are strong indications that he is, which also means that he fully deserves whatever may be coming to him. But what I am saying is that the way in which the president has gone about this is totally wrong in my view, both on a constitutional level, on a moral level, and based on International Law and the rule of law as well. At the same time, as I just stated a moment ago, I also understand what motivates Trump and his cohorts to do the things they are now doing, because during the past week, they have more clearly revealed their strategy to us by way of their many public remarks and their gaslighting endeavors.

What surprises me is that all of these current developments directly relate to a two-part article I wrote in February of 2025 called "Trump Fiefdom and the Trilateral World". I will be discussing its key points more thoroughly later on in this same series, so hang tight. Well, from what I can tell, while the MAGA crowd has been very quick to suck up the deception and the lies, it appears that US Representative for the state of Kentucky, Thomas Massie, is one of the few Republicans who really sees the situation clearly. In a post on his X account this past Sunday -- or a day after the Caracas invasion -- Massie boldly stated the following:

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"Wake up MAGA. VENEZUELA is not about drugs; it's about OIL and REGIME CHANGE. This is not what we voted for."

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Of course, many Republicans and MAGA followers have already labeled Mr. Massie as a RINO, or Republican In Name Only. In a separate post on his X account, Massie also stated "It's not American oil. It's Venezuelan oil." Of course, Massie is EXACTLY right, as I have been saying throughout this series. Sadly, going by the many online comments I have read over the past week, most American Republicans just don't get it at all, because they are too mesmerized by Donald Trump and the MAGA movement. If you ask me, personally, I think that MAGA folks behave more like a cult due to the way in which they parrot everything that Trump says, and raise him up on a platform as if he is their promised messiah. It's really quite sickening, particularly when I see how many American Christians are now so deceived and mesmerized by the man.

As I have already made clear several times now, contrary to President Trump's claim, the USA has absolutely NO RIGHT to run Venezuela until a legitimate government is put into place in Caracas through national elections. Only Venezuelans can select their new leader, and NOT the USA. So please don't be deceived by all of the current gaslighting and psychological manipulation that is being pumped out now by Trump's team of spin doctors, and from the mainstream media. See the truth for what it is.

For anyone who still doubts that what just occurred over the past week is about the oil, and NOT just about dictators and drug trafficking, I ask you to consider what President Trump said at a news conference this past Saturday, following the US's invasion of Venezuela, and the capture of its president, Nicolás Maduro:

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"We're going to have our very large U.S. oil companies, the biggest anywhere in the world, go in, spend billions of dollars, fix the badly broken infrastructure, the oil infrastructure, and start making money for the country."

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My friends, do you honestly see what is going on there? For four months we were blasted with story after story regarding alleged drug boats being destroyed; and then, not even one whole day after Nicolás Maduro is captured, suddenly, Trump isn't talking about drug boats and narco-traffickers; he is talking about oil, and he hasn't stopped talking about oil since then! He began doing a bait and switch, and changing the narrative, barely after Maduro had been caught!

I am not sure how many of my readers have read the series "Saddam Hussein's Execution and the Euro Dollar War", but as I first mentioned in part one of this series, the Iraq War was also about oil, and the fact that Saddam Hussein wanted to drop the US dollar, and switch to the euro as payment for Iraqi oil, leaving the US dollar in the cold. As I said, it was NOT about imaginary WMD in Iraq which were NEVER found, despite extensive American efforts to do so. Then Iran began their Iranian Oil Bourse approach which still exists today. The bourse -- or exchange market -- does NOT accept the US dollar for its petroleum related products. It has been shut out, and Iran will only accept currencies such as the Euro, Yuan, Rupee, or engage in barter and local currencies.

But the latest and most threatening development to US global dominance are the BRICS nations which are slowly growing in number. There are currently ten BRICS member nations. BRICS is now comprised of the countries of Brazil, China, Ethiopia, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Iran, Russia, South Africa and the United Arab Emirates. These ten nations collectively comprise more than a quarter of the global economy, as well as nearly half of the world's population. BRICS does not include the United States, which has been shut out, just as occurs with the Iranian Oil Bourse. Do you see a pattern developing?

To reiterate my key point, the American military incursion into Venezuela, and the capture of its thuggish president, is all about the oil and NOT just about the drug trafficking whatsoever. Drug trafficking is just the red herring and the distraction which is being used by the Trump administration to justify their recent illegal actions in Venezuela. Drug trafficking was just the pretext to engage in blatant acts of war against Venezuela, but NOT Trump's primary motivation for what he and his team did on January 3, 2026. My friends, please very carefully consider the following paragraphs, and try to understand the logic in what I am saying.

First of all, there are dictatorial leaders throughout Latin America, just as there are in many other parts of the world as well. Many of them are ruthless tyrants who oppress their people and rule through fear, intimidation, and by employing some very troubling tactics to keep their people in complete submission, so that they can remain in power. With regard to drug trafficking in Latin America, Hugo Chávez and Nicolás Maduro are most certainly not the only guilty parties. That being the case, you really have to ask yourself why it is that Trump specifically pursued and targeted Maduro for the past eight years. What makes him so special or different? He was certainly not the easiest or even the closest target if President Trump's primary motivation was to take out drug traffickers. What did Maduro possess that the others did NOT possess? Is that a biggest enough hint for you?

For example, it is very common knowledge that A LOT of drugs are manufactured in secret labs right across the US southern border in Mexico. Let me tell you an interesting story which I have never shared before. Decades ago during the 1970s, I spent six years living in Mexico performing missionary work. One place where I lived for a period of time was the coastal city of Culiacán, which is the capital of the Mexican state of Sinaloa. Some of you may recognize Sinaloa as the name of one of the notorious drug cartels in Mexico. In fact, as of 2025, it remains the most dominant drug cartel in Mexico. Not only that, but Sinaloa is one of the largest production and distribution areas of marijuana, cocaine, heroin, fentanyl, methamphetamine and MDMA.

Furthermore, at the beginning of his second term on January 20, 2025, President Donald Trump signed an executive order in which he designated both Cartel de Sinaloa and Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generación as terrorist organizations. Other cartels which were classified as terrorist organizations included Carteles Unidos, Cartel del Noreste, Cartel del Golfo and La Nueva Familia Michoacana. It was at that same time that the Venezuelan criminal gang Tren de Aragua was also designated as a terrorist organization.

One reason why Trump took this step, just as he had done when he declared the government of Nicolás Maduro to be a Foreign Terrorist Organization, and likewise designated the Cartel de los Soles as a Foreign Terrorist Organization as well, is because by so doing, it gives U.S. spy agencies and military units sweeping legal authorities to conduct espionage and covert operations targeting the criminal networks. However, while a terrorist organization designation authorizes a U.S. president to impose sanctions, according to what I've read, it does NOT explicitly authorize the use of lethal force. It is here where President Trump seems to disagree, and insists that he does have the authority to engage in military action without the approval of the US Congress.

Shortly after President Trump had signed his executive order which had designated the cartels as terrorist organizations, when US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth was asked by Fox News' Brian Kilmeade whether or not he would use the military to combat the Mexican drug cartels, Hegseth replied by saying the following:

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"I don't want to get ahead of the president and I won't, but that's ultimately going to be his decision. But let me be clear. All options will be on the table if we're dealing with what are designated to be foreign terrorist organizations who are specifically targeting Americans on our border. And we're finally securing our border."

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Furthermore. on February 6, 2025, Border Czar Tom Homan -- who now heads the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement or ICE -- gave a stiff warning to the Mexican drug cartels when he made the following statements to ABC News:

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"I think the cartels would be foolish to take on the military, but we know they've taken on the Mexican military before, but now we have the United States military.

Do I expect violence to escalate? Absolutely, because the cartels are making record amounts of money. We're taking money out of their pocket.

I will send a warning. You hurt a border patrol, you hurt a soldier, the wrath of President Trump's going to come down.

He has the ability to wipe them off the face of the Earth."

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On August 8, 2025, after the aforementioned cartels had been designated as terrorist organizations the previous January by President Trump's executive order, Secretary of State Marco Rubio also explained how the U.S. military could now be used against the cartels. Rubio stated the following:

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"It allows us to now target what they're operating and to use other elements of American power, intelligence agencies, the Department of Defense, whatever, to target these groups if we have an opportunity to do it. We have to start treating them as armed terrorist organizations, not simply drug dealing organizations."

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That very same day, White House spokesperson Anna Kelly gave White House reporters the very same message regarding the President's executive orders. So Trump, his cabinet and his spokespersons are all walking in locked step regarding this issue of the US military having the right to go after drug cartels. Ms. Kelly stated the following on that same day:

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"President Trump's top priority is protecting the homeland, which is why he took the bold step to designate several cartels and gangs as foreign terrorist organizations."

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Returning to my account concerning my time in Culiacán, I was living in a house with a few Christian friends that was located not far from the local university. To go from our house to the center of Culiacán -- where we would pass out Gospel tracts -- we would take a bus which would pass near or maybe right through -- I can't remember now -- an area that was known as Tierra Blanca. This area was known for being a very dangerous place, even back then. I recall one day while we were at home, we heard some shooting going on down by the university, which was pretty close to us. As I recall, we were informed that "los federales" -- federal law enforcers -- were out with their M16s taking care of trouble, which I assume meant drug-related business.

One of my friends at the time had befriended a neighbor who lived a few streets over from us. This fellow had a swimming pool, and so he invited us all over for a swim one afternoon. Once we arrived at his house, it became apparent that he was pretty well off. In fact, I think we soon realized what this fellow was involved in, and it was not nice, if you catch my drift. Yes, the guy was more than likely a drug-trafficking "mafioso". Well, a few days later, as we were getting on the bus in order to go downtown to do some witnessing, a jeep full of "los federales" pulled up and we were ordered off of the bus. Whoah! After they checked our visas and saw that everything was in order, they let us go.

Another harrowing incident I had in that place occurred while I was downtown witnessing near one of the Catholic churches. Sometimes my public preaching would attract a small crowd of listeners. One day I was accosted by an aggressive group of communists who obviously didn't appreciate a "gringo" telling people about Jesus Christ. They were atheists, of course. I don't recall all of the details, but after some harsh words and threats, they finally departed and left me alone. If you were not aware of it, Communism is -- or at least was -- very big in Mexico at the time.

The last negative incident I can recall experiencing in that city was equally alarming. One day, upon arriving home after a day of witnessing in downtown Culiacán, I discovered that someone had broken into my bedroom from the outside. Similar to other homes in our subdivision, our house was surrounded by a wall, but that didn't matter. Whoever the infiltrator was, they had jumped the wall, and pulled the entire metal grill which covered the window right out of the cement wall of the house. After breaking into my bedroom, they rummaged through the closet looking for who knows what. To this day, I don't know who they were, or what they wanted.

Anyway, these events happened some forty-seven years ago. As you can tell, even back then, Mexico was a dangerous place to be that was full of drug dealers and other riffraff. However, thankfully, God protected me through it all. I cannot begin to imagine how much more dangerous the country must be today, particularly with the drug cartels more in control than ever before. I think any American who is thinking about traveling down into Mexico pulling an RV behind them must be crazy. I have read some stories of highway robberies, tourists being beheaded, etc. As much as I enjoyed living there so long ago, I would not do it at this current time, if I was ever given the opportunity to do so.

Regarding Tierra Blanca -- which was on our way to downtown Culiacán -- I was curious about the place, so I conducted some online research to determine if I could locate any more information regarding it. To my surprise, I found an English translation of a book by author Juan Carlos Garzón entitled "Mafia & Co" with the subtitle of "The Criminal Networks in Mexico, Brazil, and Colombia". In a section of the book with the title "Sinaloa: The Narco-Tour", we find the following. Please note the mention of Tierra Blanca:

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In the city of Culiacán, the capital of Sinaloa, one tourist attraction doesn't appear on any of the guides. The tour goes through neighborhoods like Tierra Blanca, Las Quintas, Chapultepec, and the chapel of the "generous" bandit Jesús Malverde, who has become the patron saint of the drug traffickers. Some residents of this city invite their guests to the beaches of Altata or to go shopping at a mall called "El Gran Forum." They also take them to admire the sumptuous residences of the drug capos. If you are interested in this kind of trip, you should ask for the narco-tour.

On your route, your guide will slow down the car and point to a group of buildings that in spite of fading paint, are still witness to the grandeur that distinguished them in the 1980s. The guide explains:

"Those apartments used to belong to [Miguel Ángel] Félix Gallardo, who before becoming a powerful drug dealer worked in the judicial police and as a bodyguard of the man who was then the governor of Sinaloa, Leopoldo Sánchez Celis . . . The business over there (dairy product factory) is said to belong to the wife of Ismael El Mayo Zambada."

This is the "light" side of the phenomenon of drug trafficking in this city, which has seen several generations of traffickers and capos pass through. Culiacán has a history that includes times of economic bonanza but also periods of violence that intensify when there are disputes between factions. This is the urban dimension of the phenomenon and a reflection of an illegal economy that begins in remote mountainous rural areas and spreads to the country's largest cities. Sinaloa is part of the so-called Golden Triangle—which also includes the states of Durango and Chihuahua -- the area with the most poppy and marijuana production in the country. In late March 2007, more than 40,500 soldiers were deployed to this area where they found more than 160 tons of drugs in so-called secaderos, or drying sheds.

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As I said a moment ago, from everything I have read, I am given the impression that the Mexican drug cartels now hold a lot more power than ever before, and are the ones who are really in control of the country. Whether it is true or not, this is certainly what President Trump has come to believe, and I imagine that other members of his cabinet believe the same thing. For example, in late October of 2025, during a roundtable on his Homeland Security Task Forces, Trump made the following remarks regarding Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum and Mexican drug cartels when he was questioned by a reporter. The president also stated that he did not believe that he needed Congressional approval for the boat strikes which had begun the previous month:

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"Mexico is run by the cartels. I have great respect for the president, a woman that I think is a tremendous woman. She's a very brave woman, but Mexico is run by the cartels.

"I don't think we're necessarily going to ask for a declaration of war. I think we're just gonna kill people that are bringing drugs into our country. We're going to kill them. They're going to be, like, dead."

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That was not the first or only time that President Trump has made such comments concerning Claudia Sheinbaum and the drug cartels in Mexico. On a few other occasions, Mr. Trump has compared Mexico to a country in a fairy tale which is ruled by a very frightened princess who is in need of a knight to come to her rescue. Of course, Donald Trump obviously views himself as being that knight. Regarding a rescue, President Trump has been publicly stating since at least April or May of 2025 that he's been considering military strikes against the drug cartels in Mexico. Trump's remarks have obviously put Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum and Mexico on edge.

For example, in May of 2025, while he was returning to the US capital from his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida aboard Air Force One, President Trump made the following remarks to the reporters who were with him:

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"If Mexico wanted help with the cartels, I would be honored to go in and do it. I think she's [Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum] a lovely woman. The president of Mexico is a lovely woman, but she is so afraid of the cartels that she can't even think straight."

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In mid-November of 2025, President Trump again made remarks to reporters who were gathered in the Oval Office which, as was to be expected, were a cause for concern for President Sheinbaum. During that particular occasion, Trump stated the following:

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"Would I launch strikes in Mexico to stop drugs? It's OK with me. I've been speaking to Mexico. They know how I stand. We're losing hundreds of thousands of people to drugs. So now we've stopped the waterways, but we know every route. We know every route. We know the addresses of every drug lord. We know their address. We know their front door. We know everything about every one of them. They're killing our people. It's like a war."

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Please go to part four for the continuation of this series.

⇒ Go To The Next Part . . .

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