Washington – A U.S. military operation resulting in the weekend arrest of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and First Lady Cilia Flores on charges including narcoterrorism has triggered a diplomatic firestorm across Latin America. The move, unprecedented in recent history, has prompted sharp condemnation from regional leaders and a direct threat from former U.S. President Donald Trump toward Colombia’s Gustavo Petro. Petro has publicly denounced Maduro’s detention as a “kidnapping” and sharply criticized U.S. intervention in the region.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump threatened his Colombian counterpart, Gustavo Petro, on Sunday, accusing him of “fabricating cocaine,” and warned that Colombia could face a U.S. intervention similar to the one that unfolded in Venezuela over the weekend. The escalating rhetoric comes after a dramatic series of events that saw Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro taken into custody by U.S. forces.
Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One, Trump asserted that, like Venezuela, “Colombia is also very sick,” and claimed it is “governed by a man who likes to fabricate cocaine and sell it to the U.S. And that’s not going to be happening for very long.”
When pressed on whether his remarks signaled the potential deployment of “another U.S. mission” to Colombia, Trump responded, “That sounds good to me.”
A U.S. military operation on Saturday led to the apprehension of Maduro and First Lady Cilia Flores in Caracas. They are currently being held at a detention center in New York, where they are scheduled to appear before a federal judge Monday to face charges, including narcoterrorism. The operation marks a significant escalation in U.S. policy toward Venezuela and raises questions about the future of the region.
During a press conference in Florida following the Venezuela operation, Trump issued a stark warning to Petro, with whom he has had a contentious relationship and whom he has directly accused of involvement in regional drug trafficking.
At that event, Trump told the Colombian president to “watch his back.”
Petro calls Maduro’s detention a “kidnapping” and condemns Trump’s actions
Earlier Sunday, Colombian President Gustavo Petro denounced Maduro’s detention as a “kidnapping” and characterized the U.S. intervention in Venezuela as “aberrant,” claiming it destroyed “the rule of law worldwide.”
“Without a legal basis to carry out an action against the sovereignty of Venezuela, the detention becomes a kidnapping,” Petro said in a post on X, adding, “I know perfectly well that what Donald Trump has done is aberrant. They have destroyed the rule of law worldwide. They have urinated bloodily on the sacred sovereignty of all of Latin America and the Caribbean.”
Petro stated that he never recognized “the last government of Nicolás Maduro” that emerged from the presidential elections in July 2024, which he said “were not free due to the exclusion of candidates, the detentions, and the blocking and funding to assassinate one of the candidates by the U.S. judicial system,” without providing further details.
The Colombian president asserted that the United States has “such an imperial attitude that it wants to return Venezuela, after the struggle of (liberator Simón) Bolívar, to becoming a colony.”
