SOFREP Cartoon: Venezuela’s Narco Carnival

A Carnival of Consequences

The scene lands with the subtlety of a sledgehammer. A carnival booth sits under the banner of Venezuela, but it is not handing out stuffed animals. The prize here is a drug runner’s boat reduced to glittering shrapnel. Brass casings pour across the floor like someone knocked over a slot machine. The operator works the trigger with the kind of grim focus that comes when a problem becomes a job. Behind him stands a top hat clad Uncle Sam offering an open wallet and an eager grin. He has plenty of money and no shortage of enthusiasm for burning through it.

Business is Booming

Across the counter sits the booth attendant. He lounges, smoke in mouth, reading his paper while boats explode across the backdrop. His thought bubble says the quiet part out loud. Maybe he is in the wrong business. It is a joke with teeth. The cartoon hints at a world where fighting drug trafficking has become profitable in its own right. War, after all, still is a racket.

The sidelines pay better than the field. It is all so brazen that the carnival paint barely hides the rot under the plywood.

The Joke No One Laughs At

The darker punchline lands when the viewer realizes the whole setup works because everyone keeps feeding the machine. One side launches the boats. Another side blows them apart. Money moves. Bodies drop. Nothing changes.

The war on drugs is a midway game that nobody ever wins; they only fund it.

It is all fun and games until you notice the prize shelf is stocked with shattered wood and sinking hulls. Then it becomes something else entirely.

Welcome to the narco war.