U.S. President Donald Trump spoke on September 23, 2025, at the 80th anniversary of the United Nations General Assembly. Photo: UN.
Guacamaya, September 23, 2025. U.S. President Donald Trump spoke before the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday, criticizing the organization’s inefficiency while praising his own actions in a speech lasting nearly an hour. He also dedicated several minutes to Venezuela and drug trafficking.
In the televised address, he stated that he had designated several drug cartels and two criminal gangs, MS13 and Tren de Aragua, as foreign terrorist organizations. He also announced his intention to destroy “Venezuelan terrorists.”
Following the bombing of three vessels allegedly transporting drugs from Venezuela in the last month, Trump said that “we’ve virtually stopped drugs coming into our country by sea.”
“These organizations torture, mutilate, and murder with impunity; they are the enemies of all humanity. For that reason, we have begun using the supreme power of the U.S. armed forces to destroy Venezuelan terrorists and trafficking networks led by Nicolás Maduro,” Trump said about the designated criminal gangs. “We will blow them out of existence.”
Who are the cartels designated by Trump?
In February, the State Department designated six Mexican organizations as Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTO) and Specially Designated Global Terrorists (SDGT): the Sinaloa Cartel, the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), the Northeast Cartel (CDN), La Nueva Familia Michoacana (LNFM), the Gulf Cartel (CDG), and United Cartels (CU).
It also added the “Mara Salvatrucha” or MS13, which originated in Los Angeles, California, and the Tren de Aragua, of Venezuelan origin. Both operate in several countries across Latin America and within the U.S.
To date, according to the president’s statements, the Pentagon has only used force against alleged members of the Tren de Aragua. However, experts and the DEA itself note that this organization is not involved in transactional, large-scale drug trafficking. Therefore, it is highly likely that the crew members of the destroyed vessels were not part of the Tren de Aragua.
President Trump has tried to link the Venezuelan criminal group to Maduro to push his policy of mass deportations. This is how he justified invoking the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, which led to 250 Venezuelans being sent to the CECOT in El Salvador, and the revocation of immigrant protections such as TPS and “humanitarian parole.”
However, several U.S. intelligence agencies, including the CIA and NSA, have denied that any evidence exists linking the Tren de Aragua to or indicating it is led by the Venezuelan government.
Has the flow of drugs into the United States been stopped? Fact-Checking
No, and we shouldn’t expect it.
Trump said he believes about 300,000 people died last year from drugs, “from fentanyl and other drugs.” The U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says 80,391 people died from narcotics-related overdoses in 2024. In 2023, 70% were due to fentanyl.
On the other hand, bombing vessels would have a minimal impact on the flow of drugs. The fentanyl consumed in the U.S. is produced domestically or enters primarily by land, across the border with Mexico, with origins in China and India.
No organization dedicated to combating drug trafficking has reported fentanyl production or transportation in Venezuela.
Regarding cocaine, which does transit in significant quantities through Venezuela, Trump is still not targeting the main routes. The DEA states that only 5% of the cocaine produced in Colombia passes through Venezuela.
Eighty-four percent of the cocaine leaving South America does so via the Eastern Pacific, while 90% enters the U.S., again, across the land border through Mexico.
In other words, Trump is focusing the largest anti-drug military effort in history against the route that has the least relevance to the drug addiction crisis in the U.S.
