While the US kidnapping of Maduro has caused widespread outrage in Latin America, Venezuela’s western neighbor, Colombia, has moved into a state of high alert. The Bogota government has announced a three-pronged strategy encompassing diplomacy, humanitarian aid, and security, and President Gustavo Petro called Washington’s actions an “illegal threat.”
Elchi.az reports that the US taking Nicolas Maduro to its territory for trial has alarmed other Latin American countries, but one of the strongest reactions came from Venezuela’s western neighbor, Colombia.
The Bogota government implemented a three-pronged strategy on Saturday.
According to TeleSUR, based in Caracas, the first is diplomacy. After an emergency security summit on Saturday, Defense Minister Pedro Sanchez said Colombian President Gustavo Petro was responsible for this.
The second direction is humanitarian aid. Sanchez said the Ministry of Interior and the Presidential Administration would support migrants from Venezuela.
The third direction is security. The Ministry of Defense announced that it would apply “maximum force” against potential threats, including guerrillas from the National Liberation Army (ELN) operating on the Colombian-Venezuelan border.
The approximately 2,220-kilometer land border between the two countries stretches from the Caribbean Sea to the Amazon rainforest.
Meanwhile, Donald Trump made harsh statements about Mexico and Colombia.
Speaking to reporters on a plane returning from Florida to Washington, the US president claimed that Mexico is controlled by drug cartels.
Trump called Colombia a “sick country” and said, “Colombia operation sounds good.”
Colombian leader Petro said he would respond to this “illegal threat” after checking the translations of Trump’s statements.
Petro said today on his X account that even “dictators” in world history have not done anything similar to a US military intervention in Venezuela. Petro pointed to the current Israeli prime minister, as well as leaders who ruled Germany, Spain, and Portugal in the past: “Neither Netanyahu, nor Hitler, nor Franco, nor Salazar have done this.”
Petro compared the targeting of Venezuela to the Nazis’ attack on Guernica, saying, “Friends don’t drop bombs.”
The 65-year-old leftist leader claimed that South Americans would not forget what happened, saying, “Our wound has been open for a long time. Even if our Latin ancestors whisper ‘revenge’ to us, we must not take revenge.”
Emphasizing that all Latin American presidents should come together, Petro accused some leaders of bowing to foreign governments.
On Saturday, at around 2:00 AM local time, explosions and the sound of planes were heard in Caracas, the capital of Venezuela.
The Venezuelan government said that the US carried out attacks on civilian and military facilities in various parts of the country.
Donald Trump announced that Maduro and his wife were removed from Venezuela as part of a large-scale operation against Venezuela. US Attorney General Pam Bondi announced that charges had been filed against Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, in the US, and that Maduro faced charges of “narcoterrorism, cocaine smuggling, and possession of machine guns and subversive devices against the US.” The Venezuelan government has called on the international community to condemn the US.
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