In a complete rebuke of Biden-era appeasement, President Trump slammed the brakes on America’s thaw with Cuba, signing a presidential memorandum to isolate the island’s communist regime once again. The memo focuses on Cuba’s treatment of dissidents and restricting financial transactions that “disproportionately benefit the Cuban government — including its military, intelligence, or security agencies — at the expense of the Cuban people.” It also reimplements the tourism ban and restores much of the bipartisan sanctions that had held for decades until Obama lifted them.
These are excellent moves that recognize both U.S. security concerns and Cuba’s notorious human rights abuses. But Trump’s work in Latin America is far from over, as Venezuela now presents a far more complex challenge—one that the Trump administration has only begun to tackle. To finally topple this narco-regime and end Venezuela’s role as a staging ground for international crime, Trump must build an international coalition to completely isolate Caracas while simultaneously targeting the financial networks that keep Maduro’s enterprise afloat.
Whatever you say about Havana, you can say ten times over about Caracas. Nicolas Maduro’s regime operates clandestine networks with the Iranian-backed Hezbollah, helping the organization launder money and conduct global terrorism operations. According to the Atlantic Council, these networks have direct connections to the Maduro regime. Among the more than 2,000 individuals and entities designated by the U.S. government as foreign narcotics kingpins worldwide, almost 200 are affiliated with Hezbollah, many with deep connections to Latin America, using Venezuela as their operational base.
Moscow has delivered over $10 billion worth of weapons to Venezuela since 2009. Tehran has established drone manufacturing facilities on Venezuelan air bases where their technicians train local personnel to operate the equipment. China has become a top military supplier for Caracas, sending $615 million in weapons over the past decade, including riot-control equipment used against anti-regime protests.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio has held nothing back on this issue, and he is right for doing so. Venezuela is “governed by a narco-trafficking organization that has empowered itself as a nation-state,” he testified before Congress. The Department of Justice has charged Maduro himself, along with 14 other current and former Venezuelan officials, with narco-terrorism, alleging they partnered with FARC rebels in Colombia to “flood” the United States with drugs.
In addition to narco-trafficking, Venezuela has become a breeding ground for Tren de Aragua, the now-infamous transnational gang that got started in the country. From murders and sex trafficking in New York City to extortion rings across Latin America, the gang operates as an extension of Maduro's repressive apparatus. Their operatives have been linked to the 2024 assassination of Ronald Ojeda, a Venezuelan dissident living in exile in Chile—allegedly carried out on order from Maduro’s Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello. If Maduro’s regime will order political assassinations abroad, it’s not a stretch to believe they’re coordinating the gang’s drug trafficking and criminal operations flooding American cities.
Trump’s initial moves after taking office were solid first steps in reversing the disastrous appeasement policies of the Biden years. In February, he terminated Chevron’s oil license, cutting off the regime’s largest revenue source—something that Biden never should have permitted to happen. In March, he imposed 25% tariffs on any country importing Venezuelan oil—a not-so-thinly veiled shot at China, which purchased an estimated 270,000 barrels per day from Caracas last year.
Still, this is not enough. The Maduro regime has never been as weak as it is now—his fraudulent claim of victory in the 2024 election has left him more isolated internationally than ever, with even historic allies questioning his legitimacy. Domestically, the opposition is pulling no punches after the increasingly heavy-handed crackdown on protesters. The White House shouldn’t, either.
Yet just as Maduro appears the most vulnerable, Trump is already facing pressure from corporate interests advocating that America needs to allow companies access to Venezuelan oil. Don’t get me wrong — we need to expand our energy production, especially given the rise of power-hungry AI systems. The way to do this is not by propping up foreign dictators who are actively supporting the cartels flooding our streets with drugs and crime.
Instead, we should continue expanding domestic energy extraction through increased fracking as well as encouraging and boosting American energy production through expanding both natural gas and nuclear power. Some states, namely Louisiana, have already stepped up to the plate on exactly this.
All of this — the Iran/Hezbollah networks, the Russian arms deals, the Chinese military support, the narco-trafficking empire, the transnational gangs — makes it clear that Venezuela is a significantly greater threat than Cuba. Trump should immediately reimpose maximum pressure on this illicit network masquerading as a government.
Kyle Moran is an analyst specializing in international affairs and national security. His research has been published in the American Enterprise Institute’s Critical Threats Project, and his commentary has been featured widely in outlets including RealClearPolitics and the Washington Examiner.
