US military strikes that Washington claims have targeted "narco-terrorists" ferrying drugs to American soil are having little to no impact on Latin America's bustling narcotics trade, experts say. The strikes have killed at least 37 people, most of them in Caribbean waters, according to US figures. Relatives and the home governments of many of the dead deny involvement in drug-running, but experts say the killings are illegal even if they target known narcotics traffickers. The operations have raised questions in the region about US President Donald Trump's endgame. Is this truly another battle in the global war on drugs -- and if so, is the United States going after the right people? Or is this something geopolitically broader? - Wrong target? - The US administration's actions in the Caribbean "will have zero impact on drug trafficking," said Laura Bonilla of the Pares research center in Colombia, the world's biggest cocaine producer -- most of it destined for the United States. More drugs are exported via the Pacific -- from ports in Colombia, Mexico, Peru and Ecuador -- than via the Caribbean Sea, where the strikes have been focused thus far. According to the government in Ecuador, which is plagued by drug gangs, 70 percent of the cocaine destined for the rest of the world leaves from its Pacific ports. After several strikes in the Caribbean, the United States on Wednesday announced its first attack in the Pacific, with at least two people reported dead.
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That's because the Trump administration is using the "war on drugs" as an excuse to invade Venezuela to carry out "regime change".
