Few details are known about the deadly Sept. 2 strike on a boat the Trump administration claims departed Venezuela carrying drugs and 11 members of the Tren de Aragua gang<\/a>, fueling speculation. Fishermen in the peninsula told The Associated Press they do not entirely blame those who enter the illegal trade, as living off fishing alone in Venezuela today is to accept a life of poverty.<\/p>\n Fishing boats in the breathtaking peninsula have been repurposed to smuggle migrants, traffic humans, wildlife and fuel. These so-called \u201cother businesses\u201d have flourished since Venezuela\u2019s economic collapse a decade ago.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n A barely visible mural of late President Hugo Ch\u00e1vez fades from a wall near the international port in G\u00fciria, on Venezuela\u2019s Paria Peninsula, Saturday, Sept. 13, 2025. (AP Photo\/Ariana Cubillos)<\/p>\n A barely visible mural of late President Hugo Ch\u00e1vez fades from a wall near the international port in G\u00fciria, on Venezuela\u2019s Paria Peninsula, Saturday, Sept. 13, 2025. (AP Photo\/Ariana Cubillos)<\/p>\n Read More<\/p>\n \u201cThere is no revolution here,\u201d said retiree Alberto D\u00edaz, referring to the self-described socialist movement that the late Hugo Ch\u00e1vez launched in Venezuela in 1999 with the promise of improving the lives of the poor using the country\u2019s oil. \u201cWhat there is here is hunger, sacrifice, pure pain.\u201d<\/p>\n Walking through the G\u00fciria neighborhood of one of the strike\u2019s victims, D\u00edaz lamented the decline of the local fishing industry, which once offered jobs with living wages and a way for people \u201cto be happy.\u201d<\/p>\n Speculation abounds <\/p>\n Speculation over the strike is still going around Venezuela, with people wondering who died and whether their deaths are part of a plan to topple President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro<\/a>. Some have questioned their government\u2019s assertions that a video of the strike released by U.S. President Donald Trump<\/a> was created with artificial intelligence and that a boat of that size cannot venture into the high seas.<\/p>\n But fishermen in the peninsula, who know their craft, immediately recognized some characteristics of the boat from the video. They said it was a 12-meter-long fishing boat known in Venezuela as \u201cpe\u00f1ero\u201d with four powerful and expensive motors. They estimated the engines were at least 200 horsepower each, a force five times more powerful than that typically used on local pe\u00f1eros.<\/p>\n \u201cFishing doesn\u2019t pay enough to buy a motor like that,\u201d said fisherman Junior Gonz\u00e1lez, taking a break from repairing a boat along the shore of Guaca. Only a handful of roughly two dozen sardine processing plants still operate in this community following years of overfishing, failed restoration and the country\u2019s overarching crisis<\/a>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Boats are anchored off El Morro de Puerto Santo, on Venezuela\u2019s Paria Peninsula, Sunday, Sept. 14, 2025. (AP Photo\/Ariana Cubillos)<\/p>\n Boats are anchored off El Morro de Puerto Santo, on Venezuela\u2019s Paria Peninsula, Sunday, Sept. 14, 2025. (AP Photo\/Ariana Cubillos)<\/p>\n Read More<\/p>\n Gonz\u00e1lez explained that the motors he uses run between $4,000 and $5,000 each, while one of those needed to reach Trinidad and Tobago<\/a> \u2014 the suspected destination of the targeted boat \u2014 sell for $15,000 to $20,000.<\/p>\n \u2018Small-scale traffickers\u2019<\/p>\n The Trump administration has yet to explain how the military assessed the boat\u2019s cargo and determined the passengers\u2019 alleged gang affiliation before the attack. National security officials told members of Congress last week that the boat was fired on multiple times after it had changed course.<\/p>\n The strike, which followed a buildup of U.S. maritime forces in the Caribbean, marked a paradigm shift in how the U.S. is willing to combat drug trafficking in the Western Hemisphere. The U.S. military killed three other people Monday after striking a second vessel<\/a> that Trump said was carrying drugs from Venezuela.<\/p>\n Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello<\/a> has said authorities are investigating the first strike but has not provided further details. He, Maduro and other government officials<\/a> have repeatedly said Venezuela is not a key player in global drug trafficking.<\/p>\n Several fishermen and a local leader who asked not to be identified for fear of retaliation from Maduro\u2019s government told AP the boat targeted on Sept. 2<\/a> departed Venezuela from San Juan de Unare, another fishing community on the northern coast of the peninsula. They said the men aboard hailed from that town as well as G\u00fciria.<\/p>\n While some fishermen supplement their income with drug trafficking out of desperation, Christopher Sabatini, a research fellow at the Chatham House in London, said the Trump administration<\/a> \u201chas completely exaggerated\u201d the scope of their illicit activities by linking them to the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang and deeming them an immediate threat to the U.S.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you look at (the boats), these could never make the journey all the way up the Caribbean to the United States,\u201d Sabatini said. \u201cThese are small-scale fishermen \u2014 and now small-scale drug traffickers \u2014 that don\u2019t represent the crux of the issue.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2018Everyone here knows what happened\u2019<\/p>\n On Sunday, Gonz\u00e1lez, his father and siblings were the only fishermen on the shore dotted by moored boats as recent policy changes have restricted how often crews can fish for sardines. In communities like Guaca and El Morro de Puerto Santo, the new rules could drop a fisherman\u2019s income below $100 a month, which isn\u2019t enough to cover a week of groceries under Venezuela\u2019s current economy<\/a>.<\/p>\n Drug running, in contrast, pays thousands at once.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Shoppers load their goods into a car outside the municipal market in Cumana, capital of Venezuela\u2019s Sucre state, Friday, Sept. 12, 2025. (AP Photo\/Ariana Cubillos)<\/p>\n Shoppers load their goods into a car outside the municipal market in Cumana, capital of Venezuela\u2019s Sucre state, Friday, Sept. 12, 2025. (AP Photo\/Ariana Cubillos)<\/p>\n Read More<\/p>\n \u201cHe doesn\u2019t have food this week,\u201d Kira Torres said, pointing to a member of her husband\u2019s fishing crew, which had returned to El Morro de Puerto Santo last week without any sardines, so they earned no money.<\/p>\n Torres said the community has ruling-party leaders who coordinate the delivery of government subsidies, including food rations. Yet, they have not received them in months.<\/p>\n She conceded that some fishermen in the peninsula turn to drug running for \u201ceasy money,\u201d but ultimately, they do it because they have no other choice.<\/p>\n \u201cMany make the mistake because they are in dire need,\u201d Torres said, pointing at reasons like hunger or having a sick relative. \u201cNeed forces them to do anything, and since the government doesn\u2019t come here to help<\/a>, what is one supposed to do?\u201d<\/p>\n The impact of the illegal trade in parts of the peninsula is clear: businesses quickly deduce a successful drug run when people suddenly pay for goods and services with crisp U.S. dollar and euro bills. They buy more than a handful of things at convenience stores and treat themselves to a burger and fries.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n A woman hangs clothes to dry in the fishing community of El Morro de Puerto Santo, on Venezuela\u2019s Paria Peninsula, Sunday, Sept. 14, 2025. (AP Photo\/Ariana Cubillos)<\/p>\n A woman hangs clothes to dry in the fishing community of El Morro de Puerto Santo, on Venezuela\u2019s Paria Peninsula, Sunday, Sept. 14, 2025. (AP Photo\/Ariana Cubillos)<\/p>\n Read More<\/p>\n Restaurant and bakery owner Jean Carlos Sucre has noticed this pattern in G\u00fciria and is worried about the future. He said the recent U.S. strike has only worsened the \u201casphyxiating\u201d conditions already facing his business due to Venezuela\u2019s soaring inflation<\/a> \u2014 leading to a significant drop in his weekly sales.<\/p>\n \u201cThose who are working illegally aren\u2019t setting sail for fear of being caught by the gringos, I imagine,\u201d Sucre said. \u201cEveryone here knows what happened, but very few talk. This week I sold 10 hamburgers out of the 90 I was selling (before the strike).\u201d<\/p>\n ____<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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