President Donald Trump warns of “zero tolerance” for narco-states in America’s backyard, China is tightening its grip on Venezuela, reports Fox News.
We have a massive presence in the Caribbean and I don’t think it’s only about drug boats.
Venezuelan officers are reportedly training for guerrilla-style defense against a possible U.S. strike.
At the same time, Beijing unveiled a “zero-tariff” trade agreement with Caracas. Venezuelan officials said the accord covers roughly 400 tariff categories, removing duties on Chinese and Venezuelan goods.
Venezuela’s failed communist state is becoming more reliant on China. Beijing is moving fast into a sanctioned economy that Washington has sought to isolate.
“This really looks like China is going to completely take over the Venezuelan economy,” said Gordon Chang. “It’s going to decimate Venezuela’s local industry.”
“Venezuela basically sells petroleum to China and very little else,” he said. “China, of course, is a manufacturer of many, many items. Venezuelan manufacturing is not going to experience a renaissance anytime soon — it’s going the opposite direction.”
Maduro is desperately looking for financial and military support with President Trump on his border and China is there to help. Russia and Iran are also present in Venezuela.
The Council on Foreign Relations estimates that China has extended around $60 billion in loans to Venezuela over the past two decades, much of it repaid through oil shipments.
The Anti-Western Alignment Off Our Shores
Isaias Medina III, an Edward Mason Fellow at Harvard University and a former Venezuelan diplomat to the U.N. Security Council, said the new pact must be understood as one layer in a wider anti-Western alignment.
“Under the banner of so-called ‘21st Century Socialism,’ initiated by Hugo Chávez and expanded by Nicolás Maduro, the nation has evolved into a forward operating base for regimes openly hostile to the United States and its allies,” he said.
“Iran, Russia, China, and Cuba have entrenched themselves across Venezuelan territory, using the country as a platform for asymmetric warfare, intelligence operations, and ideological expansion throughout Latin America.”
Russia’s involved in Venezuela with arm sales and their Wagner Group is conducting military exercises. Cuban military advisors are in Venezuelan security institutions.
“Iran has exploited this environment to embed terrorist proxies such as Hezbollah and Hamas, using Venezuela as both a financial hub and a logistical corridor. These activities extend to former training camps in Syria, where Venezuelan operatives and mercenaries have been indoctrinated in hybrid warfare tactics,” he added. “Iranian interest includes potential drone manufacturing and uranium mining.”
The Toll It’s Taking
“The Maduro government, shielded by the absence of the rule of law or legitimate governance, has replaced statecraft with criminal enterprise,” Medina said. “Grand corruption is not the exception; it is the system.”
“The humanitarian toll is catastrophic,” he added, “Over 30% of Venezuela’s population has been forcibly displaced. Starvation has been weaponized as a tool of social control, amounting to a war crime under international law. Despite the enormity of these crimes, many United Nations member states continue to recognize and engage with this illegitimate regime, thereby perpetuating its impunity. The failure to confront this crisis decisively enables a coalition of adversaries, state and non-state actors alike, to project power dangerously close to U.S. territory.”
For now, Washington’s sanctions campaign still constrains Venezuela’s oil lifelines.
Chang said the underlying reality hasn’t changed: China can’t protect Caracas from U.S. hard power. It’s limited to propaganda.
The Stakes
Medina agreed that the stakes reach beyond economics. “Just three hours from U.S. shores, this narco-terrorist regime has become the operational convergence of organized crime, drug trafficking, money laundering, and human rights atrocities,” he said, urging a Western response combining “diplomatic isolation, targeted sanctions, and, when necessary, defensive deployments.”
