The "Cartel of the Suns": Media Indoctrination and Reality.

EanB...n5vb

31 Aug 2025

I know they will censor me, but as Proverbs 28:18 says, "...he who walks in integrity will be saved"... even if the wicked are bothered by it.

Undeniably, when we talk about this topic, we will "collide" with three truths: mine, yours, and the truth. The first is passion, the second is opinion, the third is stubbornness. But invariably, as long as we don't agree on our versions, THE OBJECTIVE TRUTH REMAINS THERE, IGNORED BUT UNCHANGING.

Friend, if "by the grace and work of the Holy Spirit" you are reading this, you have probably heard ad nauseam on CNN, the BBC, or El País the story of the fearsome "Cartel of the Suns," an alleged drug trafficking organization led by Venezuela's top military and political leaders. This narrative has been presented to you as a true, unquestionable fact.

But what if I told you that this story, which justifies suffocating economic sanctions and condemns a people to suffering, is based on the same nothingness? What if I showed you, with irrefutable data from the US agencies themselves, that the Venezuelan "narco-state" is the perfect wolf tale for a geopolitical objective?

Allow me, based on a rigorous personal analysis and a defense of the right to self-determination of peoples, to open your eyes. We have been indoctrinated. But the truth, although uncomfortable, always finds its way.

The story of the "Cartel of the Suns" was not born in a courtroom, nor in an intelligence report with conclusive evidence. It originated in the pages of the mainstream media around 2015. The script was perfect: a group of corrupt Venezuelan generals, in alliance with the Colombian FARC guerrillas, were turning Venezuela into a "narco-state" that threatened the security of the United States. The main architect of this narrative was Spanish journalist Emili Blasco, ABC's Washington correspondent, who began publishing "leaks" from anonymous sources within the DEA and the CIA.

These leaks—never independently verified—were immediately replicated by The Wall Street Journal, Reuters, and the entire network of affiliated media outlets. An "ECHO EFFECT" was created: one outlet cited another as a source, feigning a veracity that never existed. The story became entrenched in international public opinion not because of its evidence, but because of its constant repetition.

The "star evidence" has always been the testimony of figures of dubious credibility, such as Leamsy Salazar, a former bodyguard of Hugo Chávez who defected to the US and, under highly suspicious circumstances and with clear incentives to cooperate, pointed to Diosdado Cabello as the kingpin. Physical evidence? Zero. Documents? None. Just the word of a defector seeking a deal with US justice.

Factual Evidence vs. the Media Narrative

This is where the story falls apart. When we contrast the sensationalist narrative with the factual evidence from specialized agencies, the contradiction is abysmal. If the "Cartel of the Suns" is a drug trafficking organization as powerful and omnipresent as the media claims, it would be logical for it to appear prominently in the annual reports of the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). Well, the "Cartel of the Suns" DOES NOT APPEAR in the 2025 DEA report. Nor in the 2024 report. Nor in any of the previous reports.

These reports, which are the most authoritative documents on the subject, precisely detail the drug trafficking routes: cocaine is produced in Colombia, Peru, and Bolivia. It is transported through Central America and Mexico by Mexican cartels, or by sea to the Western Caribbean (Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic). Venezuela, incredible as it may seem, does not appear on any of these routes. Not as a producer, not as a main corridor, not even as a secondary alternative route. So what "narco-state" are we talking about?

The only mention of Venezuela in recent reports is the "Tren de Aragua", but even then it is not linked to international drug trafficking. How then can we explain the media talking about a cartel that the DEA itself doesn't even mention?

The 2025 World Drug Report from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) is even more conclusive:

1️⃣ Venezuela remains free of illicit coca and marijuana crops, and cocaine processing laboratories.
2️⃣ It appears with minimal and residual mention as a transit route, far removed from the main corridors.

More revealing are the data from the U.S. Department of Defense's Consolidated Counterdrug Database (CCDB), considered by the department to be the "best authoritative source". These data show that:

1️⃣ Ninety percent of cocaine destined for the US passes through the Eastern Pacific and Western Caribbean routes (along with Mexico and Central America), not through the Eastern Caribbean, where Venezuela is located.
2️⃣ The flow of cocaine through Venezuela decreased by 13% between 2017 and 2018 and has continued to decline, just as the Venezuelan government intensified its interdiction operations.
3️⃣ The peak of transit through Venezuela (2017) directly coincided with an explosive increase in production in Colombia (from 918 to 2,478 metric tons between 2012 and 2017!), demonstrating that it was a spillover phenomenon, not a state policy.

In 2023, the narrative was revived with the extradition to the US of Hugo "El Pollo" Carvajal, former Venezuelan intelligence chief. After years of imprisonment and pressure, Carvajal pleaded guilty in June 2025 and again mentioned the "Cartel of the Suns". What the headlines don't say is that Carvajal publicly broke with the Venezuelan government in 2017 and in 2019 openly aligned himself with Juan Guaidó, supporting the failed coup attempt. His "confession" is that of a captured political dissident, who negotiated his sentence in a US judicial system that rewards cooperation with sentence reductions. It's evidence so weak and tainted that no objective court would take it seriously. However, it served to offer a $50 million bounty on Nicolás Maduro, a script identical to the one used with Manuel Noriega in Panama. Remember that in 1989?

While the media speaks of a "narco-state", official Venezuelan data, backed by international organizations, tells a very different story:

In 2025 alone, Venezuela seized more than 3.9 million doses of drugs.
It has reduced illicit trafficking by 23% compared to 2023.
It has captured and extradited Colombian cartel leaders to the US.

Are these the actions of a state that profits from drug trafficking? Clearly not. They are the actions of a state that effectively combats it.

In my opinion, what we are seeing today is a "BY-THE-BOOK GEOPOLITICAL PATTERN":

1️⃣ There is no evidence, only narrative. The existence of the "Cartel of the Suns" is unsupported by reports from the DEA, the UN, or the CCDB. It is based solely on the testimonies of defectors with incentives to lie and unverifiable media leaks.
2️⃣ The objective is geopolitical, not anti-drug. This narrative is a tool to justify a "regime change policy" in Venezuela. It is a hybrid warfare manual: the political leadership of a non-aligned country is criminalized to legitimize economic sanctions, international isolation, and, ultimately, intervention. It is the same script used with Noriega in Panama and with Saddam Hussein in Iraq (weapons of mass destruction).
3️⃣ The hegemonic media are weapons of war. This case is a textbook example of how the international press is used to construct an alternative reality that serves the interests of those in power. Sensationalism is prioritized over fact-checking journalism.
4️⃣ The real problem of drug trafficking lies elsewhere. The reports point to Colombia as the epicenter of production, Mexican cartels as the main transporters, and the US financial system as the center of global money laundering. Pointing to Venezuela is an exercise in hypocrisy and monumental distraction.

Dear reader, we have been sold a simplistic story of good guys and bad guys. We have been led to believe that a country—SUFFERING FROM A BRUTAL ECONOMIC BLOCKADE—is, at the same time, an omnipotent narco-empire. This logic crumbles at the slightest factual examination. Waking up from this indoctrination means demanding EVIDENCE, not accusations. It means questioning why the same media that repeats this narrative ignores the DEA reports that refute it. It means standing in solidarity with the right of a people to decide their destiny without the shadow of foreign manipulation and coercion.

The "Cartel of the Suns" is a phantom. But the consequences of this narrative for the Venezuelan people are terrifyingly real. It's time to stop believing in stories and start demanding facts. The next time someone repeats the fallacy of the "VENEZUELAN NACOSTATE", ask them: Where's the evidence in the DEA reports? While the mainstream media repeats their "truth", the DEA and the UN remain silent with data. IRONIC, ISN'T IT?