The imperial narrative to justify an invasion

Published at: 23/01/2026 05:00 PM

The American empire, whenever it attacks a country, seeks to introduce into the collective imagination that that nation threatens its stability. For example, in 2003 we saw what happened with Iraq, when he alleged the danger posed by the possession of weapons of mass destruction and Saddam Hussein's apparent links with the Islamic organization Al Qaeda.

None of this was true. After the invasion, no weapons of mass destruction were found in Iraq and the evidence of the Iraqi president's connections with the terrorists of September 11, 2001, obtained under torture, also turned out to be false.

The political scientist from Harvard University, Stephen Walt, in an interview given in 2023 to the German channel DW, explained that “there was a reason for the falsity of the intelligence data, they had already made the decision and were only looking for reasons, that is, they were manipulating intelligence to justify what they had already decided”.

At that time, the same statements that we see today were made, such as those of the expert in criminal and international law, Kai Ambos, when he said that “the attack against Iraq exposed a use of force contrary to international law, in violation of UN statutes, the invasion of Iraq had no basis in a resolution of the UN Security Council. Apart from that, there is only the possibility of justifying the use of force through self-defense, which obviously did not happen in this case.”

In the same way, in the Venezuelan case, the imperial narrative to justify an invasion to the world was the existence of the Cartel of the Suns, which is an accusation that dates back to a formal indictment presented by a US grand jury in 2020, which described an alleged conspiracy of years led by Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro to traffic cocaine to USA.

That narrative was later reinforced in July 2025, when the Department of the Treasury designated the so-called Cartel of the Suns as a terrorist organization, copying the language of the original accusation. Then, in November 2025, Mr. Rubio ordered the State Department to adopt the same designation.

And from Venezuela, who developed the narrative of the existence of a drug trafficking cartel in the country, was the fugitive from justice, María Corina Machado, who, with the validation of the US government, was responsible for affirming the existence of a narco-state.

Thanks to pressure from Machado, the U.S. government designated the Aragua Train and the Cartel of the Suns as terrorist organizations, giving life to a narrative created to discredit a legitimate government, such as the Venezuelan one. Under this premise, it was stated that the United States was in a state of armed conflict with “narco-terrorist” cartels to legitimize attacks against 21 vessels that, since September 2025, caused the death of more than 83 people.

At the same time, Machado was responsible for pressuring right-wing governments in the region such as Argentina, Paraguay, Ecuador and Chile to declare the Venezuelan Government an international terrorist organization, a decision that is in line with the initiative adopted by USA. In September 2025, the European Parliament, which encompasses 27 countries, also included the Cartel of the Suns in the list of terrorist organizations.

Today, after having bombed the Venezuelan capital, leaving at least 100 dead and kidnapping President Nicolás Maduro Moros to prosecute him on charges of narco-terrorism, the existence of both the Cartel of the Suns and the Aragua Train is disbanded ; a speech that for years has been disbanded reported to be totally false.

In the research carried out by the portal called Mission Truth, entitled “USA discard his own creation: the Cartel of the Suns” it was detailed that “despite the fact that the existence of a criminal organization in Venezuela has been ruled out, the narrative has not been abandoned on the political level. One day after the revised accusation was made public, Marco Rubio once again referred to the Cartel of the Suns as a real organization and reiterated threats of attacks against vessels, insisting that its supposed leader, President Maduro, is in U.S. custody.” Then, the dissonance between political discourse and judicial recognition revealed that the accusation functioned exclusively as a media instrument of political pressure.

Days after the attack on Venezuela, at a press conference, Trump, in a gesture of exceptional frankness, went so far as to invoke the Monroe Doctrine; a formulation of foreign policy founded in the 19th century, designed to subordinate Latin America to the sphere of American domination, this exposed a weakness structural structure of American power on the global stage.

In the Mision Verdad investigation, it was added that “a supremacist country sure of its position does not need to kidnap a Head of State, correct accusations after the operations have been carried out, or resort to anachronistic doctrines to explain its conduct. Imposition by force appears, in this case, as a substitute for a lost capacity to build legitimacy, consensus, or even narrative credibility.”

The removal of the Cartel of the Suns from office confirmed, once again, that the US power apparatus acted knowing that its story would not withstand judicial scrutiny. This belated recognition reflects the weakness of an order that can no longer be sustained without open recourse to force. The world is on permanent alert, truths are coming to the surface and Venezuelans are still in battle, resisting and with the clarity that once again, we will win.

AMELYREN BASABE/Mazo News Team