Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro spoke out against a possible US attack on the neighboring country, Venezuela.
Petro responded to a report by the New York Times last week that said that US President Donald Trump, in secret, had signed a directive to the Pentagon to use military force against “cartels” in Latin America.
This would affect drug cartels that are designated as Foreign Terrorist Organizations, including the Venezuelan Cartel de los Soles.
The US Government claims that this group is led by Nicolas Maduro and his top officials.
In a press statement, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that he had raised the reward for information that would lead to the arrest of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro to $50 million.
The order would mean that the US military is allowed to capture or kill targets outside of its territories. This military development re-establishes the Monroe Doctrine, wherein the US justified interventionism in Latin America, which has led to countless coups and invasions.
Petro’s initial response was an invitation to the US and Venezuela to work together and to coordinate actions against drug cartels.
He emphasized that violence would not be the key to overcoming drug cartels. And that decriminalization efforts and economic integration of left-out groups, such as the peasantry and indigenous groups, would be more effective.
The president also critiqued the bounty put on Maduro, saying that: “I don’t believe that the solution to Venezuela’s political problems lies in paying to kill or capture political leaders.”
In a different post on the social media platform X, Petro said that he ordered the military to consider an attack on Venezuela an attack on Latin America and the Caribbean.
“Colombia and Venezuela the same people, the same flag, the same history,” according to the president.
Tensions between the US and Venezuela have gotten increasingly worse since the 1999 election victory of late Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who since embarked on what he called “the Bolivarian Revolution.”
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