On the 10th, the president of the United States, Donald Trump, said that, after the dictator of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro – who, according to him, his days are “numbered” –, the president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, “will be the next” target of American actions against drug trafficking in Latin America.
Petro came into the White House’s sights after criticizing the US military operation that targeted vessels allegedly linked to drug trafficking in international waters in the Caribbean Sea, near Venezuela, and which later spread to the Pacific Ocean, near Colombia.
With Trump promising to carry out land actions in Venezuela soon, Petro sees the pressure increasing on him as well, as parts of the way of working that targets Chavismo are being repeated in Colombia, although there are important differences.
A similar point is that on the 16th the Trump administration designated the Colombian Clan del Golfo as a terrorist organization, a classification that the United States used to justify bombings on vessels that were supposedly belonging to Venezuelan gangs.
This year, the US designated the Tren de Aragua and the Los Soles Cartel, which the White House says have ties to Maduro, as terrorist groups.
In previous administrations, the United States government had already applied this classification to Colombian groups, such as the FARC dissidents and the National Liberation Army (ELN).
Another similarity in the offensives against Maduro and Petro are the sanctions against the two leaders and their families.
The Venezuelan dictator, his wife, Cilia Flores, Maduro’s son, Nicolás Maduro Guerra, the Chavista leader’s wife’s three children and other relatives of the couple were included on the Treasury Department’s economic sanctions list.
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In October, Petro, his wife, Veronica del Socorro Alcocer Garcia, his eldest son and a minister in his government became targets of the same measure, under the Trump administration’s justification that the leftist president allowed drug cartels to “flourish” in Colombia during his mandate.
Previously, in September, the US State Department had already canceled the Colombian president’s visa, after he participated in a pro-Palestine protest in New York in which he “urged American soldiers to disobey orders and incite violence”.
Another similar factor is that the United States, which has imposed sanctions on Venezuela for years, withdrew aid to Colombia this year.
However, despite these similarities worrying Petro, significant differences allow us to project that the Colombian president will not be the target of American measures on the same scale as the Venezuelan dictator.
To begin with, Petro is currently not formally accused of crimes by the United States. Although Trump called Petro a “drug trafficker” this year, there is no news of proceedings in the American courts against the Colombian president, unlike Maduro.
A New York federal court indicted Chavista on charges of narcoterrorism, conspiracy to bring cocaine into the United States, possession of machine guns and destructive devices, and conspiracy to possess machine guns and destructive devices.
Based on this indictment, the United States offered in 2020, during the first Trump administration, a reward of US$15 million for information leading to the arrest and/or conviction of Maduro.
On January 10 of this year, still under the Joe Biden administration, the offer was increased to US$25 million. Finally, in August, the amount offered rose to US$50 million.
“Maduro uses foreign terrorist organizations such as Tren de Aragua, [Cartel de] Sinaloa and Los Soles Cartel to bring lethal drugs and violence to our country,” said Attorney General Pam Bondi, when announcing the new amount.
Other points that count in Petro’s favor are that, unlike Maduro, he was democratically elected and has not expressed any intention of remaining in power.
In 2026, there will be a presidential election in Colombia and the leftist will not be able to run because local legislation does not allow consecutive presidential terms. Senator Iván Cepeda will be the candidate of Petro’s party, the Historic Pact, in next year’s election.
Maduro, in turn, after assuming the government of Venezuela in 2013, remained in office through questioned elections and has not indicated that he will leave power, even in the face of American threats of intervention.
These differences give Petro some relief – but he must “watch out”, as Trump himself warned.
