Three US destroyers equipped with the Aegis system, a defence technology designed to track multiple targets and neutralise air or sea threats simultaneously, will be arriving off the coast of Venezuela in the next couple of days, according to reports by Reuters. They will be accompanied by 4,000 troops, surveillance planes and a submarine in what is by far the largest ever show of force the US has mustered against Venezuela's Chavista government.

The ostensible casus belli of this military operation is to take down drug trafficking organisations in Latin America, now classified by the White House as narco-terroristas. They include Venezuela's Tren de Aragua and the Cartel de los Soles, which according to Washington has close ties to the Maduro government.

Needless to say, anyone who believes or supports this latest pretext for war against a country the US has tried to regime change at least twice so far this century and which has been subject to more than a decade of crippling US sanctions is either exceptionally gullible or an apologist for empire.

That is not to say that Maduro or elements within his government are not engaged in drug trafficking — though the US is, to my knowledge, yet to present any evidence supporting that — but rather that this has little, if anything, to do with the US' latest escalation in what is now a years-long simmering conflict.

An Old, Tired and Badly Written Script

This latest escalation began around two weeks ago with US Attorney General Pam Bondi's announcement of a $50 million bounty for information leading to Maduro's arrest, up from $25 million. Erik Prince, the shadowy founder of the disgraced mercenary firm Blackwater whose name has changed so often it's hard to keep up, followed up by tweeting: "Should be dead or alive."