U.S. drug probe won't topple Venezuelan regime

The U.S. probe won't have big political consequences in Venezuela, nor trigger — at least during the remainder of the Obama administration — dramatic U.S. actions. In the past, U.S. drug probes against top foreign officials accused of drug trafficking have had mixed results. They led to U.S. diplomatic pressures that toppled former Bolivian President Luis Garcia Meza in 1981, and to the U.S. invasion that ousted Panama's President Manuel Antonio Noriega in 1989, but did not force the resignation of former Colombian President Ernesto Samper in the late 1990s. In fact, Samper is the current leader of the Union of South American Nations. And, considering that Venezuela is one of the top foreign U.S. oil suppliers, and that Washington has no appetite to suspend Venezuelan oil imports, intervene militarily or do anything that could provoke a rise in world oil prices, the U.S. drug probe against Cabello will have limited consequences. More…