In 1990, a CIA counter-narcotics program in Venezuela spiraled out of control, allowing one ton of cocaine to enter the United States. Federal prosecutors were overruled, foreign generals walked free, and oversight was minimal.
On today’s APT History, we uncover the full story of the CIA-Venezuela cocaine scandal, exploring secret reports, immunity deals, and the lasting implications of a program that blurred the line between intelligence and criminal complicity.
This isn’t just history — it’s a cautionary tale for today’s U.S.–Venezuela tensions and ongoing geopolitical struggles in 2025.
Watch the full episode to understand how secrecy, impunity, and institutional failure shaped one of the most explosive drug scandals of the late Cold War.
00:13Today on APT History, we go back to a moment the US intelligence community would prefer the world forget.
00:20A moment buried inside sealed indictments, shuttered investigations, and a CIA report that has remained classified for 33 years.
00:28A moment that began with a counter-narcotics operation and ended with one ton of CIA-linked Venezuelan cocaine flooding into the United States,
00:37triggering one of the most explosive drug scandals of the late Cold War.
00:42This is the story of 1990.
00:45When a secret CIA-Venezuela drug infiltration program spiraled out of control, federal prosecutors were quietly overruled
00:53and a foreign general linked to cocaine trafficking walked free because indicting him would damage bilateral relations.
01:00In 1990, the Central Intelligence Agency's anti-drug program in Venezuela inadvertently, or deliberately depending on interpretation,
01:10shipped approximately one ton of nearly pure cocaine to the United States.
01:15Rather than seize the drugs and controlled shipments, the CIA authorized uncontrolled shipments,
01:21allowing cocaine to enter the US without interception to gather intelligence on drug trafficking networks.
01:27When US Customs seized nearly 1,000 pounds at Miami's airport in late 1990, the scandal exploded.
01:35The Drug Enforcement Agency, DEA, had explicitly refused to participate, warning that the operation violated federal law.
01:44One CIA officer resigned, another was disciplined, but General Guillen was granted immunity in exchange for cooperation,
01:52and reportedly said nothing implicating the CIA.
01:56The CIA's own inspector general completed a secret report in 1992, submitted to the Senate Intelligence Committee,
02:04but it remains classified to this day.
02:07In June 1991, the US Attorney in Miami proposed indicting General Guillen,
02:13but State Department official Melvin Levitsky intervened, warning that charges could damage US-Venezuela relations
02:21and force Washington to cut off assistance to Caracas.
02:25The indictment was quietly dropped.
02:28Congressional oversight proved minimal.
02:30The House Intelligence Committee later acknowledged that CIA liaison relationships with foreign intelligence agencies,
02:37rarely if ever, were voluntarily reported to Congress.
02:42The scandal exposed a pattern.
02:44CIA counter-narcotics programs across Central and South America,
02:48Bolivia, Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, operated with minimal transparency,
02:53creating conditions for corruption, drug trafficking and abuse.
02:57The Venezuela program was effectively crippled,
03:00but similar programs continued operating with the same structural weaknesses and lack of accountability.
03:06The 1990 cocaine scandal was not an isolated incident.
03:11It reflected a broader CIA strategy in Venezuela dating to the mid-1980s,
03:17when President Ronald Reagan ordered the agency to establish anti-drug programs in major cocaine-producing nations.
03:24The CIA worked directly with Venezuela's National Guard, a paramilitary force controlling borders and highways,
03:32creating opportunities for corruption and dual loyalties.
03:35The scandal also echoed earlier CIA involvement in Haiti,
03:39where the agency had created a Haitian intelligence service whose officers became involved in drug trafficking and political terror.
03:47Congressional investigators noted a troubling pattern.
03:51CIA anti-drug operations in Latin America frequently became compromised by the very criminal networks they were supposed to infiltrate,
03:59blurring lines between intelligence gathering, law enforcement and complicity in drug trafficking.
04:05The lack of DEA oversight, minimal congressional scrutiny and diplomatic pressure to avoid indictments all contributed to institutional failure and impunity.
04:15The scandal, exposed by CBS's 60 Minutes and later investigated by federal grand juries,
04:21involved CIA officers Mark McFarlane and General Ramón Guillén Dávila of Venezuela's National Guard,
04:29who had accumulated over 3,000 pounds of cocaine from Colombian traffickers as part of an undercover infiltration operation.
04:36Today on APT History, we don't revisit the 1990 CIA scandal as a relic, but as a warning.
04:44A reminder that today's US-Venezuela showdown isn't unfolding in a vacuum,
04:50but in the long shadow of an operation that slipped one ton of cocaine into America,
04:55and a secret report still locked away 33 years later.
04:59A legacy of secrecy, impunity and mistrust that now hangs over every threat,
05:05every deployment, every declaration of airspace closure in 2025.
05:11We'll be there with the ruins of the world of the world!
05:14A magnificent world of a modern constitution of war-based peace,
05:16is a record of all its contains all kinds of the human rights of the world!
05:23And the latter part of the world is the rest of the world!
05:26It's a critical part of the world that I have seen before listening to the internet,
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