On Venezuela’s Paria Penin­su­la, an idyl­lic stretch of Caribbean coast, it is an open se­cret that boats de­part­ing from its ports trans­port both drugs and fish.

Res­i­dents claim not to know who owns the il­le­gal car­go, but they can tell when busi­ness is do­ing well be­cause peo­ple eat out, get their hair and nails done and buy ex­pen­sive meat. They al­so ad­mit that none of this has hap­pened since the U.S. mil­i­tary struck on one of those boats ear­li­er this month.

Few de­tails are known about the dead­ly Sept. 2 strike on a boat the Trump ad­min­is­tra­tion claims de­part­ed Venezuela car­ry­ing drugs and 11 mem­bers of the Tren de Aragua gang, fu­elling spec­u­la­tion. Fish­er­men in the penin­su­la told The As­so­ci­at­ed Press they do not en­tire­ly blame those who en­ter the il­le­gal trade, as liv­ing off fish­ing alone in Venezuela to­day is to ac­cept a life of pover­ty.