The Corruption Behind Drug Smuggling and Christian Nationalism in Latin America

U.S.-backed drug smuggling and corruption transcend borders in Latin America, all in the name of colonialist Christian nationalism, not unlike what’s happening in the United States

Photo by Hennie Stander on Unsplash

From Cuba and Venezuela to Colombia, Brazil, and Ecuador, many in Latin America believe the U.S. targeting of cartels isn’t to stop drug smuggling, but to ensure who controls the production and distribution networks. This may seem outlandish to the uninitiated and hard to prove without access to classified documents, but it’s not unheard of. The U.S. government, particularly its Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), has been implicated dozens of times in drug smuggling operations throughout history.

Drug Smuggling Background

The CIA has regularly partnered with cartels and international drug smuggling operations under the guise of anti-communism efforts. In 1972, high-ranking U.S. government officials in Vietnam and other countries were alleged to be part of the illegal drug trade out of Southeast Asia. They were directly involved in distributing heroin to soldiers fighting in Vietnam and to addicts at home in the United States, according to narcotics researcher Alfred W. McCoy’s testimony to the Senate Appropriations Committee’s subcommittee on foreign operations. McCoy laid out the process in his book, “The Politics of Heroin in Southeast Asia.”

This brings reminders of U.S. involvement in the drug trade out of Afghanistan, going back to the Soviet-Afghan War and continuing into the more recent U.S. occupation of the country. In the late 1970s and the 1980s, the CIA and its allies in Pakistan and Saudi Arabia turned a blind eye to the Mujahedin’s drug smuggling operations. As the U.S. provided billions of dollars in aid to fight the Russians, opium production in Afghanistan tripled between 1982 and 1989.

Once the Russians left Afghanistan in 1989, the country plunged into a civil war, with control over opium production and trafficking at the center of the conflict. After the 9/11 attacks and the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, the same policies of the Soviet-Afghan War would be implemented, growing the heroin and opiate trade in the country by 37%. The U.S. military’s efforts in Afghanistan created an environment for the manufacture and distribution of various opiate related drugs to prosper.

This is but the tip of the proverbial iceberg. From smuggling drugs into U.S. cities to fund the Iran-Contra scandal to various invasions in Latin America, illicit drug smuggling networks are a staple in the U.S.’s destabilization efforts. Those networks are later employed by U.S.-installed far-right leaders, thus bolstering drug addiction in the U.S. and Europe. What’s clear about all of this is that managing the drug trade is about control, power, and greed, and many high-ranking government officials are not above being the real kingpins behind these operations.

Latin American Drug Smuggling

The Iran-Contra affair brought U.S.-funded drug manufacturing operations in Latin America into focus. The proceeds were used to fund the Contras and help them overthrow the Sandinista government in Nicaragua, which returned to power in 2007. After losing the presidency in 1990, the Sandanistas remain a powerful political group even today. Like Vietnam, the U.S. funded a civil war to attempt to overthrow a movement that inevitably maintained power.

The Senate’s 1986 “Kerry Committee” report found that the State Department made humanitarian aid payments, meant for the Nicaraguan Contras, to known drug traffickers, some of whom had been indicted by federal agencies. CIA-connected Contra supporters and pilots created a major drug trafficking operation. In 1989, when the Costa Rican government indicted a CIA operative, a DEA-hired plane flew the operative to Miami, via Haiti. The U.S. repeatedly thwarted Costa Rican efforts to extradite him to Costa Rica to stand trial.

The CIA has also been accused of the torture and murder of Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) agent Enrique ‘Kiki’ Camarena in 1985 in Mexico. The CIA had connections to one of the accused murderers, Rafael Caro Quintero, one of the founders of the so-called Guadalajara cartel. Camarena had reportedly exposed a massive marijuana operation. He was later killed by Caro Quintero, who was helping the CIA by letting them use his ranch to run guns and drugs to assist the Contras.

The U.S. was even part of the drug smuggling operations out of Panama under Manuel Noriega, a paid CIA asset who had allegedly been smuggling drugs and laundering money as early as 1971. The U.S. government eventually turned on him in 1989 when he was no longer of use, going so far as to invade Panama, killing Panamanians to remove him from power. The official death toll, according to the U.S., was 201 civilian deaths and 314 military deaths.

However, U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark put the death toll at around 3,000. 20,000 Panamanians were displaced.

In 1990, the CIA was caught working with Venezuela’s anti-drug unit to ship hundreds of pounds of cocaine to the U.S. The cocaine was seized in drug shipments in Venezuela and was shipped to the United States. Despite the objections of DEA officials, the CIA shipped the drugs anyway. It wasn’t until a shipment was seized at Miami International Airport that the plan would be exposed and written off as “instances of poor judgment and management on the part of several C.I.A. officers.”

A Fixture in Latin America

The CIA is a decades-old fixture in Latin America. The agency has been responsible for training terrorists who would later conduct attacks in both Cuba and the United States. Many CIA-trained Cuban exiles turned on the U.S. after the Cuban Missile Crisis, and CIA funding for their groups began to dry up. This led to many bombings by various anti-Castro groups from New Jersey to Miami. The assassinations targeted Cubans who promoted a different approach to dealing with Castro. These attacks and mafia-style operations inevitably led to the bombing of Cubana Flight 455 in 1976, killing all 73 people on board.

“Terrorism is a necessary evil in the fight against Castro,” CIA-trained terrorist Orlando Bosch told New Times Magazine in 1977. “There are times when you cannot avoid harming innocent people.”

Today, similar operations continue. In 2024, two terrorist attacks were thwarted. The attacks were coordinated in the United States. The players behind them left a trail of clues on social media, sometimes openly declaring what they were planning. Two would show their faces while the rest hid behind fake accounts with various names to try to be covert about seeking support from other Cubans, both inside and outside of Cuba.

No U.S. news outlet reported these thwarted attacks.

White Nationalism

The history of drug smuggling by the United States is but one piece of the puzzle. Using those drugs to overthrow governments and impose far-right leadership is another. Today, we’re seeing cynical accusations of drug smuggling hurled at Latin American leaders who actively implement extensive counter-narcotics efforts. Meanwhile, the United States is working with government officials with known ties to smuggling operations in Ecuador and partnering with El Salvador’s president, who, despite putting gang members in prison, has allowed others, including government officials, to fill the vacuum left by those he imprisoned without due process.

Allegations that Nicolás Maduro was the head of Tren de Aragua, and later, Cartel de los Soles, exposed the desperation to link him to some criminality that impacts the U.S. The narrative about Venezuelans being gang members and later labeling all Latinos as such also stems from the Christian white nationalism that has infected conservative politics. The same has been happening in Latin America for several years. Many leaders have embraced Christian white nationalism, and while it has seen some successes, there’s been a strong pushback.

There is a straight line between the actions coming from the White House and several Latin American countries. While El Salvador President Nayib Bukele, Argentina President Javier Milei, Ecuador President Daniel Noboa, and wannabe Venezuelan president Maria Corina Machado have not openly declared themselves Christian nationalists, they have expressed many of the movement’s views and have aligned themselves with Christian white nationalist groups in the U.S. and Europe.

Pushback

Representing the pushback is former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, an avowed Christian nationalist. Bolsonaro was resoundingly rejected in Brazil’s last election and has since been charged with an attempted coup after trying to overthrow the election. He was sentenced to 27 years and is currently under house arrest while his sentence is under appeal. Bolsonaro is barred from running for office until 2030.

In Bolivia, after a major election boycott by socialists, a runoff between two conservative candidates was held. One pitched a MAGA-style platform, and the other a more Bill Clinton-esque platform. In a rejection of far-right austerity measures and an extreme policy agenda like those seen here and in Argentina, Bolivians elected the latter, Rodrigo Paz, with approximately 54.6% of the vote. This marks the first time in 20 years that a member of the Movement for Socialism isn’t at the head of government.

Then comes Nicaragua, a country that has again been declared a dictatorship by the U.S. The country was under conservative rule from 1990 to 2007, when Daniel Ortega was elected. Ortega remains in power and is serving his fourth term as president after elections in 2021 that were largely declared a “sham” by several countries. The next presidential election is on November 8, 2026. Ortega was the first elected president after the overthrow of the Somoza dictatorship in 1979, cementing his long-standing popularity in the country.

Conclusion

Various Latin American leaders, such as Colombian President Gustavo Petro, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, and Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, among a coalition of nations, have spoken out against U.S. aggression against Latin America, as has much of the world. Many of those Latin American leaders have highlighted the imperialist and colonialist nature of the U.S.’s actions under Trump.

As of today, Latin America is under grave threat from the Trump administration and those supporting the White House’s unilateral and illegal actions. The same people who are actively pushing a Christian white nationalist movement at home and abroad. Historically, the U.S. has used drugs to fund opposition to leaders it dislikes and to overthrow governments all over the world. What’s happening to Latin America today is standard protocol for an oppressive nation like the U.S.

It’s no wonder so many dictators copy what we do.

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I’m an independent journalist who digs deeper into the stories you see on the news. Find my work at Unicorn Riot, The Antagonist Magazine, Latino Rebels, Orinoco Tribune, and more. I’m also on TikTok, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Mastodon, and Threads. To support my work, consider becoming a paid subscriber or making a donation via Venmo, PayPal, or Cash App.