Venezuela Iceberg: What Lies Beneath Oil, Cocaine, Communism, Corruption, Terrorism and Power?
Venezuela is a hotspot, sitting on an iceberg and senior investigative journalist for the Epoch Times, Joshua Philipp is the one journalist willing to rip the lid off the feeding frenzy. Oil, cocaine, communism, and raw power collide in a country that has become a live battlefield for Iran, China, Russia, and the narco-state machinery they use to launder influence into the Western Hemisphere.
What looks like chaos is actually a system — engineered, exploited, and protected by foreign regimes that see Venezuela not as a nation, but as a weapon. Philipp doesn’t just report what’s happening; he detonates the illusion, exposing how Venezuela is the tip of a global iceberg whose submerged mass threatens energy markets, regional security, and the balance of power itself. This isn’t a story — it’s an indictment, and once you read it, there is no going back.
What’s happening in Venezuela today is not just about oil, drugs, or corrupt dictators clinging to power — it’s about the intersection of energy wealth, transnational crime, ideological struggle, and a global power reordering that has thrust this oil-rich Caribbean nation into the center of a new great power contest. Venezuela sits atop the largest proven oil reserves on Earth, yet decades of mismanagement, sanctions, and allied networks of corruption have left its economy shattered even as its resources remained strategically vital.
The Venezuela Operation: Why the Maduro Raid Is Only the Beginning | EpochTV
Watch the Trailer for Philipp’s new documentary, Truth Under Fire: The Framing of Charlie Kirk
President Nicolás Maduro’s regime — now ousted in a bold US military operation that captured him and charged him in U.S. courts with narco-terrorism and drug trafficking — has long been deeply intertwined with criminal networks and state institutions. U.S. indictments allege that top officials ran the Cartel of the Suns, turning Venezuela into a narco-state where cocaine, gold, and illicit money flows blended with governance itself.
But that’s just the surface. The Maduro government aligned itself with China, Russia, Cuba, and Iran as part of a multipolar anti-Western bloc, using oil contracts, debt arrangements, and geopolitical cooperation to bind Caracas to Beijing and Moscow. Chinese firms secured long-term access to prized Venezuelan oil fields, while Russia provided military ties, defense equipment, and strategic support that signaled Caracas as a foothold of influence in the Western Hemisphere. Tehran and Caracas built on decades-old cooperation, reinforcing an “Axis of Unity” that challenged U.S. regional dominance.
The conflict in Venezuela is therefore not isolated: it is linked to global energy strategies, the struggle over the dollar’s dominance, the containment of China’s and Russia’s reach, and the fight against state-linked criminal networks. It is about power, about who controls the world’s energy arteries, and about which international order emerges in the 21st century.
Joshua Philipp can break through the surface noise and show audiences why Venezuela is truly the tip of the geopolitical iceberg — a microcosm of the larger confrontation between global powers, ideologies, and criminal-state entanglements shaping the world today.
Relevant Article(s)
The Venezuela Operation: Why the Maduro Raid Is Only the Beginning | EpochTV
OPTIONAL Q&A:
- How has Venezuela evolved from an oil-rich nation into a strategic hub for global power competition
- What role do oil revenues play in sustaining the regime’s alliances with China, Russia, and Iran
- How deeply embedded is drug trafficking within Venezuela’s political and military leadership
- Why has Venezuela become so critical to Iran’s operations in the Western Hemisphere
- How do China and Russia benefit strategically from Venezuela’s instability and isolation
- What does Venezuela reveal about the modern model of communist and authoritarian survival
- How does the narco-state structure in Venezuela threaten regional and U.S. security
- What is the single most misunderstood aspect of Venezuela that Joshua Philipp uncovers
ABOUT JOSHUA PHILIPP…
Joshua Philipp is an award-winning journalist and Senior Investigative Reporter at The Epoch Times. He is the host of ‘Crossroads,’ a news and analysis program on EpochTV. His works have included breakthrough investigations into the origins of Covid-19 and the Wuhan laboratory in the early days of the pandemic. He spearheaded the first documentary on the lab leak origins of the COVID-19 virus, released in April 2020. This groundbreaking documentary garnered over 75 million views, and while many tried to label it misinformation, its findings have since been vindicated by the White House and US intelligence agencies.
EXPERT ANALYSIS FROM JOSHUA PHILIPP
Joshua Philipp, senior investigative reporter at The Epoch Times and a recognized China expert, has mapped out these networks during his 15-plus years of research into the CCP. He provides a deeper context on the CCP’s attempts to subvert the systems and institutions in the United States. As the Chinese regime states, they aim to “strangle you with your own systems,” and that tactic is playing out across key industries and institutions in the US.
Josh is also a leading expert on Chinese unconventional warfare and United Front operations, which he has investigated and exposed since 2008. His 15-plus years of research and investigations on the Chinese Communist Party, subversion, human rights abuses and related topics give him unique insight into the global threat and political landscape.
DOCUMENTARIES/SERIES
• Tracking Down the Origin of the Wuhan Coronavirus
• The Final War: The 100-Year Plot to Defeat America
NOTABLE APPEARANCES
• The National Press Club
• Harvard University
• CPAC
• Turning Point USA
• Tucker Carlson Tonight on Fox News
• Steve Bannon’s War Room
• The U.S. Air Academy
CONTACT: Todd Baumann at 512-966-0983 or by email Jerry McGlothlin at bookings@specialguests.com.
