The subheadline laid out the concern and the potential for misunderstanding:

Attacks in Caribbean, aid cuts for Colombia and pressure on Venezuela blur lines between counternarcotics and regime change

When illegal narcotics are a nation’s major, if not primary, product, and that nation’s primary source of income is smuggling and peddling illegal narcotics, and especially if that nation’s illegal narcotics are killing so many of our children and young adults, then regime change becomes a necessary tool of counternarcotic operations.

The US does poorly at nation-building, which must follow—by someone—regime change. We were successful with Germany, Italy, and Japan after WWII, but our record is very weak since then. Still, sometimes regime change is necessary, and this one, should it come to pass, will need the follow-on very carefully monitored—and guided, if the wrong builders show up.