What are we doing in Venezuela? Given President Trump’s declaration that the United States will now “run” the country for the foreseeable future, the answer should be clear. It isn’t—not even remotely.

In the months leading up to Saturday’s shocking invasion of Caracas to abduct President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, as the U.S. bombed small boats from Venezuela and amassed an armada off its coast, the Trump administration offered one official rationale for its increasing military aggression: to combat drug trafficking, in particular fentanyl, which is responsible for tens of thousands of overdose deaths in America. Venezuela doesn’t produce that drug—it’s mostly manufactured in Mexico, with chemicals from China—and it barely produces any cocaine. But it’s true that Venezuela is a transit hub for cocaine, which is often laced with fentanyl before or after it reaches the United States. This fact, by the administration’s tortured logic, is why Maduro was snatched from his presidential compound and arraigned Monday in New York charges specifically related to cocaine distribution.

But there’s a difference between the administration’s stated rationale and its actual goals, which vary depending on the official. The military buildup was overseen by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who, as the son of Cuban exiles, is obsessed with removing Cuba’s Communist government and sees Venezuela, one of its few allies and its main source of oil, as a key domino in its downfall. Meanwhile, Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff and the architect of Trump’s fascist immigration policy, reportedly sees Maduro’s downfall as a key part of his deportation strategy: A pliant Venezuelan government would make it easier to send more Venezuelans currently living in the U.S., regardless of........

© New Republic