Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro has sparked fresh debate in Latin America after claiming that a recent U.S. military strike hit a suspected drug-processing facility near Venezuela’s Maracaibo port, an area long associated with regional trafficking routes.
Petro said he believes the targeted site may have been used to convert coca paste into cocaine, taking advantage of Maracaibo’s strategic coastal access. In a post on X, he directly blamed the National Liberation Army (ELN), a Colombian guerrilla group active along the Venezuela border, accusing it of operating cross-border drug networks and fueling instability in the region. According to Petro, the ELN’s criminal activities and ideology are effectively driving what he described as an “invasion” of Venezuelan territory.
The comments came after U.S. President Donald Trump confirmed authorizing a strike this month against what he called a “major drug facility” along Venezuela’s coast. While Trump said the attack destroyed a key hub used to load drugs onto boats, he did not provide details about the exact location, casualties, or the scale of damage. Later, Trump told reporters that the strike caused a large explosion in a dock area allegedly used to load narcotics for maritime trafficking.
The operation marks a significant escalation in Washington’s anti-drug campaign, which until recently focused mainly on intercepting suspected smuggling vessels at sea. Over the past several months, the U.S. military has announced more than 30 interdiction operations in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific. According to the Trump administration, these actions have resulted in more than 100 deaths, a figure that has drawn criticism from human rights groups and scrutiny both inside and outside the United States.
Relations between the U.S. and Colombia have also become strained. Trump has accused Petro of encouraging drug production and suggested that Washington could expand military operations against drug targets inside Colombia. Petro strongly rejected those claims, arguing that U.S. policy is misdirected and dangerous. He said Colombian nationals have been among those killed in U.S. operations and criticized what he sees as growing American militarization in Latin America.
In another pointed remark, Petro questioned the logic of targeting certain shipments at sea, claiming that many of the intercepted boats were carrying cannabis rather than cocaine. He highlighted what he called a contradiction in U.S. policy, noting that cannabis is legal in many American states while being treated as a deadly threat abroad.
Venezuela’s geographic position has long made it a key transit corridor for Colombian cocaine, particularly through the border state of Zulia and the Lake Maracaibo region. Traffickers are known to use a mix of maritime routes, overland corridors, shipping containers, and even semi-submersibles to move drugs toward the Caribbean and onward to Europe. Petro has insisted that cocaine bound for Europe increasingly travels via submarines and container shipping, not small boats.
Caracas has not officially commented on Trump’s announced strike. However, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro recently claimed that his armed forces destroyed nine foreign drug-trafficking aircraft within a single day near border areas with Colombia and Brazil. At the same time, the U.S. has stepped up pressure on Maduro by seizing oil tankers linked to what it calls Venezuela’s “shadow fleet,” arguing that these vessels help finance both sanctions evasion and drug trafficking. Maduro is wanted in the United States on narcoterrorism charges, with a $50 million reward offered for information leading to his arrest.
As tensions rise, Colombia finds itself in a difficult position. Bogotá remains a key U.S. security partner but is increasingly vocal about opposing actions it sees as violations of Venezuelan sovereignty. Petro’s public criticism underscores a broader regional concern that the expanding U.S. military campaign against drugs could deepen instability rather than solve the underlying problems of trafficking and production in Latin America.
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