Venezuela’s Paria peninsula, in Sucre state, the country’s far eastern coast, the region which centuries fisheries are crippled, while drug money offers an alternative to subsist.

The peninsula has captivated people for centuries. Turquoise shallows kiss the shore while deep sapphire seas marry clear skies on the horizon.

Nowadays the vistas remain just as striking but the industry and development of the region is only a shadow of what it once was.

Fishermen say their trade no longer sustains them, forcing many to live with hunger or look elsewhere for survival.

Across the Peninsula, in Morro de Puerto Santo and Guaca cities, fisher people complain that two days at sea barely earns them a handful of dollars.

As the U.S. continues to carry out strikes on boats in the Caribbean, claiming they carry gang members and drugs from Venezuela, everyone is speculating about it.

People wonder who died and whether their deaths are part of a plan to topple Maduro.

“For reasons of poverty, desperation, and the lure of money, people get caught up in the drug trade. That doesn't mean necessarily that they are ‘Tren de Aragua’ or ‘Cartel de los Soles’. What it means is that there's a lot of money and that they're living on the margins”, said Christopher Sabatini, a senior fellow for Latin America at Chatham House, during an interview with the Associated Press.

No matter how hard they work nor how much time they spend at sea, fishermen earn just enough to eat.

In the busy port of Cumaná, the main city of Sucre state, merchants and fishermen rush to trade. Fishermen organize their catch. A boat can be seen overflowed with fish.

The hands of merchants and fishermen alike are also overflowed with bills. They are all counting and trading.

Inflation is once again on the rise in Venezuela and people need large amount of notes of the highly depreciated local currency to make for a few dollars.

Locals call drug trafficking “the other business.” Many deny taking part but admit they understand why some neighbors do. Fishing incomes can fall below $100 a month, while a single run moving cocaine across the Caribbean can pay thousands.

“And so in the case of fisher people off the coast of Venezuela, they're operating small boats. It's a target of opportunity for the real heads of narcotics traffickers”, Sabatini said.

U.S. President Donald Trump released video of the strikes. He told journalists in the Oval Office there was proof that they carried drugs, including cocaine and fentanyl but the U.S. government has not released such proof.

“These boats we've seen, maybe they were drug traffickers, maybe they weren't. Maybe they're just innocent fishermen. We don't know,” Sabatini said. “But it indicates that there are citizens who are not necessarily capos in any sort of mafia sense but are getting caught in this crossfire.”

Sources, including fishermen and a local leader, who asked not to be identified for fear of retaliation from Maduro’s government told The Associated Press the boat targeted on Sept. 2 departed Venezuela from San Juan de Unare, another fishing community on the northern coast of the Peninsula of Paria. The men aboard hailed from that town as well as Güiria, once a thriving port city.

In Güiria, once a busy and thriving port city, the situation is dire for many.

Families avoid speaking of the victims of the strike.

In a neighborhood sources say one of the victims lived, a group of retirees play bingo on a Saturday afternoon.

It’s their weekly entertainment in a retirement life that is far from what they would have hoped in their youth.

“Here the only jobs available is for working in sweeping the streets, cleaning grass and working for the Chinese”, said Yudy Paez refering ti the Chinese-owned stores that are common in the country and represent one of the few job options available. “Here is no other possibility to work. Here everyone earns the same. The one who studies and the one who doesn’t earns the same income.”

The city is filled with unfinished government construction like schools and a worn-out hospital.

The once-thriving international port, busy with fish processing plants and international ships docking has collapsed after years of failed policies.

For Sabatini, Narcotics trafficking thrives amid the issues: poverty, corrupt governments and lack of accountability.

“That's what's created the toxic environment in Venezuela,” Sabatini said.

AP Video by Juan Arraez