12/5/25 Brad Pearce on the Venezuela Escalation and What’s Happening in Sudan

·34 min·2 clips

It's an infinity D chess move — the Venezuelans can't even figure out how to make fentanyl.

1. Scott Horton Show - Just the Interviews features Scott Horton interviewing Libertarian Institute writer Brad Pierce about U.S. policy toward Venezuela and the UAE's role in Sudan's civil war. 2. Brad Pierce writes for the Libertarian Institute and runs the Substack blog The Wayward Rambler, and hosts the podcast Dispatches from Clown World. 3. The episode's core thesis is that Florida's Cuban- and Venezuelan-exile political lobby, not oil interests, is the primary force pushing Washington toward confrontation with Venezuela. 4. Pierce says Chevron's long-standing ties to Venezuelan crude make an oil-driven war unlikely, citing a friend's view that 'Exxon and Chevron don't fight like that.' 5. He argues Secretary of State Marco Rubio is a sincere 'true believer' in regime-change politics shaped by his Cuban-exile upbringing, not merely playing to a Florida political base now that Florida is reliably Republican. 6. Pierce and Horton discuss Pentagon claims, including one attributed to Senator Tom Cotton, that survivors of a U.S. strike on a boat were 'clinging to the fight,' which they say stretches the 2001 AUMF's 'associated forces' language. 7. Both note DEA reporting states fentanyl trafficking chemicals come from China and are processed in Mexico, not Venezuela, undercutting the administration's stated rationale for military pressure. 8. Pierce jokes that framing Venezuela as a fentanyl source is 'an infinity D chess move to teach the public that socialism is so inefficient the Venezuelans can't even figure out how to make fentanyl.' 9. He compares U.S.-Cuba relations unfavorably to U.S.-Vietnam relations, arguing normalized trade could have occurred with Cuba decades ago instead of a 70-year embargo. 10. Horton and Pierce also discuss North Korea as a similar missed opportunity for diplomatic engagement before it developed nuclear weapons. 11. Pierce says polling shows little public support for renewed Venezuela intervention, though he notes a segment of the American public consistently favors military action against a rotating cast of enemies. 12. The conversation shifts to Sudan, where Pierce discusses his Libertarian Institute article on the United Arab Emirates' expanding drone-technology exports and economic interests across Africa. 13. He describes Hemedti, leader of Sudan's Rapid Support Forces, as a Bagheera Arab from a group making up roughly seven percent of Sudan's population, whom Khartoum's elite frame as a foreign outsider. 14. Pierce says the RSF's messaging strategy, unlike typical genocidal rhetoric, avoids justifying violence against a defined enemy and instead claims to support equal rights for all Sudanese. 15. He expresses skepticism about widely shared satellite imagery said to show a 'blood stain' from mass killings after the RSF's capture of Al Fashir, calling the visual evidence inconclusive. 16. Pierce says the UAE ships disassembled, unweaponized drones to Sudan under civilian or humanitarian cover, which recipients then arm, giving the UAE plausible deniability. 17. The interview is a fast-paced, analytical two-person conversation moving between distinct regional conflicts, with Horton prompting and Pierce supplying detailed policy analysis. 18. The tone is critical of U.S. and allied foreign policy throughout, delivered with dry humor and skepticism toward official narratives on both Venezuela and Sudan. 19. Would appeal to listeners interested in libertarian foreign-policy analysis, Latin America politics, or African conflict reporting. 20. Likely to be skipped by listeners seeking mainstream foreign-policy framing or breaking-news-style coverage.

As heard by us

A pointed look at how oil ties and enforcement limits complicate Venezuela policy.

The episode starts with oil, leverage, and the assumptions behind American policy toward Venezuela. Scott Horton asks his guest to unpack the relationship between the American government, Venezuela, Chevron's long-running presence there, and the Venezuelan government.

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Want to trace how Chevron, cartels, and Venezuela policy collide in a libertarian foreign-policy conversation?

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