Fact check: Trump’s claims linking Venezuela to drugs, migration and oil

President Trump has repeatedly justified military and legal actions against Venezuela by citing the country’s role in drugs, migration and oil, but a New York Times fact-check concluded those three central claims are inaccurate. On drugs, the article noted Mr. Trump’s assertion that strikes on vessels “knocked out 97 percent” of maritime trafficking and saved hundreds of thousands of lives lacks public evidence.

The administration authorized more than 30 strikes on at least 36 vessels from Sept. 2 to Dec. 31, killing more than 110 people, but officials have not detailed the type or amount of drugs intercepted or shown that the strikes proportionally prevented overdoses. Experts cautioned that lethal-dose estimates do not equate to lives saved; overdose deaths peaked in 2022 at nearly 110,000 and fell to more than 73,000 from April 2024 to April 2025.

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime said the primary mode of trafficking from Venezuela is by air, and a 2020 Drug Enforcement Administration report found just 8 percent of documented cocaine moved through the Caribbean corridor. On organized crime and migration, the fact-check said Mr.

Trump’s claim that Mr. Maduro personally ran the so-called Cartel de Los Soles or ordered the emptying of prisons and mass shipments of criminals to the United States is unsupported. The superseding indictment released over the weekend does not describe Mr.

Key Topics

Politics, Donald Trump, Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro, Tren De Aragua, Operation Southern Spear