On Sept. 2, the Donald Trump administration killed 11 people by destroying a boat allegedly being used by the Venezuela-based Tren de Aragua gang to transport narcotics to the United States. The strike came with a message from Secretary of State Marco Rubio: Those who dare to ship drugs to the United States risk their lives.

But if the military operation in the southern Caribbean was meant to highlight just how serious the White House was about curtailing Latin America’s drug cartels, it also demonstrated the haphazard, disjointed and downright confusing policy Washington has with respect to Venezuela.

Deteriorating relations

During the Trump administration’s first few weeks in office, it appeared as if Washington and Caracas, adversaries for the last two decades, were in the process of

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