Colombian President Gustavo Petro said the site struck in Venezuela was used to mix coca paste into cocaine and linked it directly to the ELN, the Colombian guerrilla group Photo by Carlos Ortega/EPA
Dec. 31 (UPI) — Colombian President Gustavo Petro said he learned the United States’ attack on Venezuela struck a cocaine processing facility in Maracaibo that he said belonged to the National Liberation Army, or ELN.
Petro said the site was used to mix coca paste into cocaine and linked it directly to the ELN, the Colombian guerrilla group with a strong presence in the Catatumbo region, a strategic border area for drug processing.
“We know Trump bombed a factory in Maracaibo. We believe coca paste is mixed there to make cocaine, taking advantage of its location on the waters of Lake Maracaibo. It is simply the ELN. The ELN, through its criminal activity and rigid ideology, is allowing the invasion of Venezuela,” Petro wrote on X.
His comments followed statements by U.S. President Donald Trump, who said Monday that U.S. forces struck “a large facility” linked to drug trafficking in Venezuelan territory.
Press reports said the Central Intelligence Agency carried out a drone strike against a port installation in Venezuela.
Petro also said that “many boats hit by missiles” during the Trump administration’s military deployment in the Caribbean were not carrying cocaine, but rather cannabis.
He described the situation as “paradoxical,” noting that cannabis remains illegal in Colombia, while it is legal in parts of the United States — a discrepancy he said “has cost the lives of many humble boat operators and none of U.S. or global consumers.”
“Cocaine to Europe is moving by submarine and container. Cannabis is what is being illegitimately targeted,” Petro said, before proposing the substitution of coca leaf crops with cannabis, arguing that it is currently more profitable.
“The state should take advantage of that,” he added in the lengthy post.
Petro also said that only about 5% of the cocaine produced in Colombia passes through Venezuela.
Addressing his relationship with Venezuela’s government, Petro said “Trump has been led to believe that I am a front man for Maduro,” adding that he expected U.S. intelligence to be “more professional” or that, if it is, “the U.S. president does not listen to it and instead surrounds himself with far-right figures driven by greed who do not seek the truth.”
He also said there is “no evidence of drug trafficking” against Venezuela’s president, adding that “the generals we confirmed were negotiating cocaine were involved in sedition with the support of the Colombian government, seeking a coup in Caracas.”
Petro said his most recent phone call with Nicolás Maduro focused on how to jointly strike the ELN along the border.
The Venezuelan government has not issued an official comment on the bombing or Petro’s statements. On Tuesday, during the inauguration of the International School of Women’s Leadership in Aragua state, Maduro said “false news” about Venezuela is being spread in the United States.
He criticized U.S. media coverage and stressed the need to “combat disinformation” through social media and multiple languages to break what he described as a blockade and censorship of the truth about his country.
