This editorial by Marcos Roitman Rosenmann originally appeared in the November 5, 2025 edition of La Jornada, Mexico’s premier left wing daily newspaper. The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect those of Mexico Solidarity Media*, or the Mexico Solidarity Project.*
On December 20, 1989, the George Bush administration ordered its armed forces to invade Panama. The U.S. Army, Air Force, and Marines entered Panama City. The stated reasons were electoral fraud and safeguarding the interests of U.S. companies and citizens. But the real objective was to block the Torrijos-Carter Treaties, which would have required the evacuation of U.S. military bases and the transfer of the Canal Zone’s administration to Panama by 2000. Even the operation’s name, Operation Just Cause, was significant. The number of Panamanian victims exceeded one thousand. However, the Pentagon acknowledged 516 deaths: 202 civilians and 314 military personnel. But something seemed off. For the first time, the fight against drug trafficking was mentioned, and the term narco-guerrillas was applied to popular insurrectionary movements.
The neoconservative right occupied the White House. Ronald Reagan, and subsequently George Bush, launched a new foreign policy for Latin America, the ideology of which was embodied in the Santa Fe I and II documents. Reversing revolutionary processes, counterinsurgency, and the fight against drug trafficking were its pillars. Following this approach, the Panamanian government, under Manuel Antonio Noriega, was labeled as drug traffickers. In the midst of the invasion, searching for drug caches, they entered the President’s residence. The DEA agent in charge of the operation, René de la Cova, later arrested for laundering money for Colombian cartels, opened the refrigerator and, surprise!, there he found the evidence of the crime. Packages wrapped in banana leaves concealed, they would say, cocaine. Photos, statements, and a lot of publicity followed. The enthusiasm was short-lived; they were what they appeared to be: tamales. The anecdote, which is nothing more than a bad joke, went down in history as Noriega’s tamales. Meanwhile, on December 27, the US-appointed president, Guillermo Endara, took office in the Canal Zone, swearing allegiance to US General Marc Cisneros.
Today, with Donald Trump in the White House, low-intensity warfare is being revived with threats of intervention if recalcitrant governments do not comply with his orders. In other words, they must relinquish sovereignty, hand over raw materials—oil, nickel, or rare earth elements—to US companies for exploitation and strategic control, and accept DEA oversight and the presence of US armed forces on their territories. All of this is under the umbrella of the “war on drugs .” This policy has led to the bombing of fishing boats in the Caribbean Sea, under the pretext that they are drug-trafficking vessels. Submission or destabilization seems to be the White House’s motto.
While Venezuela can barely count on support from the left governments of Latin America, who have reacted to the open sea murders and severe violations of international law and Latin American sovereignty with the mildest of protests, the Bolivarian Republic has an armed and conscious populace ready to defend the homeland.
In the 21st century, in 2025, Noriega’s tamales reappear to fulfill the same role: justifying invasions. But the tamales take the form of narco-boats. No proof exists, except for images and statements from Marco Rubio, Donald Trump, and his Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth. The governments of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and Colombia are in the crosshairs. Nicolás Maduro will be labeled a drug trafficker, and Gustavo Petro will be considered his ally. Maduro will be linked to every cartel imaginable, whether Mexican, Colombian, or fabricated: Tren de Aragua, the Sinaloa Cartel, Los Hijos Cartel, and the leader of the fictitious Cartel of the Suns.
To lend credibility to the accusations, U.S. Attorney General Pamela Bondi declared on August 7: “The DEA has seized 30 tons of cocaine linked to Maduro, seven of which are believed to be his property (…). Maduro is one of the world’s biggest drug traffickers and a threat to our national security. Therefore, we have doubled the reward for him to $50 million (…). Maduro mixes cocaine with fentanyl, which has resulted in the loss and destruction of countless American lives.” And the evidence? Noriega’s tamales are right there in plain sight.
Next on the list is Colombian President Gustavo Petro. On September 15, the United States removed Colombia from its list of countries fighting drug trafficking and declared President Gustavo Petro, his eldest son, Interior Minister Armando Benedetti, and First Lady Verónica Alcocer associates of drug trafficking. In a fit of rage, Donald Trump accused him of allying himself with the narco-terrorist government of Venezuela. Meanwhile, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent declared: “Since President Gustavo Petro came to power, cocaine production in Colombia has skyrocketed to its highest level in decades, flooding the United States and poisoning Americans (…). President Petro has allowed drug cartels to flourish and has refused to stop this activity.” In response to the accusations, President Gustavo Petro spoke with dignity and conviction, defending Colombia’s sovereignty: “I recommend that Trump read Colombia carefully and determine where the drug traffickers are and where the democrats are.”
In Latin America, Donald Trump seeks allies to corroborate his lies. Ecuador, El Salvador, Paraguay, Argentina, and the Dominican Republic are prime examples. Panama, too, has succumbed. Today, its president, José Raúl Mulino, who served as foreign minister under the Endara administration, declares US maritime transport in the Canal Zone duty-free, while simultaneously facilitating the DEA, CIA, and Marines’ control of organized crime’s trafficking and money laundering in a country without armed forces. Thus, he surrenders Panama’s sovereignty to the United States, while regurgitating Noriega’s tamales.
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