Everything is ready for the United States to attack Venezuela militarily. It is no longer about psychological warfare, paranoia, exaggerations, or alarmist metaphors. It is only a matter of days until the first cannon shot rings out on the land of Bolivar and all the storms leading to hell of nations are unleashed. Colombia is also in the eye of the hurricane. The extreme right seeks to put President Petro on trial and dreams of seeing him detained in an American prison under any pretext.
Everything that happens in Venezuela will affect Colombia. Any attack on Pietro’s life and freedom would strike the continent. US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s announcement last Thursday of the start of Operation Southern Spear, in his offensive against drug trafficking in Venezuela, Colombia, Cuba and Mexico, is a prelude to more difficult days for diplomacy. It is a tough test for democracies on the continent. The new international order is being rewritten with fire, sticks and tariffs.
Secretary Hegseth’s statement is another one of the US government’s rising and controversial narrative in Trump’s personal campaign to oust Nicolas Maduro, whom he accuses of being the head of an alleged drug trafficking ring. It is also a response to the call of the opposition and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Maria Corina Machado, who is demanding foreign intervention in her country. Just two decades ago, Álvaro Uribe demanded the same thing from Colombia, under the pretext of inflicting a military defeat on the FARC.
The declaration of war is also another step in the campaign to demolish the democratic government of Gustavo Petro, whom Trump has accused, without any evidence, of allowing the rise of drug trafficking in Colombia, and has punished him with unilateral measures, such as withdrawing his visa to the United States and including him on Clinton’s list, as well as withdrawing the country’s accreditation in the fight against drug trafficking. Petro is being punished because of his independence in managing international relations, his condemnation of the genocide in Gaza, his rejection of the military aggression against Venezuela, and his refusal to lend border lands for this purpose.
The announcement of Operation Lanza del Sur comes just four days after the fourth summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States and the European Union, in Santa Marta, in the Colombian Caribbean, which brought together 9 heads of state, 6 vice-presidents, 23 foreign ministers and other dignitaries, under the leadership of President Petro and the President of the European Council, Antonio Costa. The presence of the leaders of Brazil, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, and Spain’s Pedro Sanchez, was prominent, who refused to listen to the United States’ call to sabotage the summit. After a day of deliberations, a 52-point statement was issued, negotiated over three months, in defense of democracy, free elections, human rights, the validity of multilateralism, international cooperation, sustainable development, and respect for the self-determination of peoples, rejecting “the threat or use of force and any action inconsistent with international law and the Charter of the United Nations,” in a clear message to Washington, Beijing and Moscow.
That summit took place despite the bet on failure on the part of the US government, which wanted to isolate Petro and reduce her international standing, in its campaign to undermine her image and growing global leadership. The media attack was to have a narrative that that meeting was a clear failure. In fact, the event provided oxygen for Colombian diplomacy and allowed the two regions to advance in building a new, more just international order and a peaceful world, while also confronting the great powers in a subtle way.
The debate of ideas in Santa Marta was shaken by the publication of the magazine It changesfrom a report revealing an artificial intelligence-generated image, in the hands of a White House advisor, showing Presidents Pietro and Maduro, wearing the orange jumpsuit of US prisoners. It is clearly noted that the author of the so-called “Trump Doctrine” is the Republican congressman of Colombian origin, Bernie Moreno, an ally of the Colombian Conservative Party.
The photo was an assault on the dignity of Petro, who responded forcefully on Sunday night, at a pardon event held by the Colombian state for victims of genocide committed by paramilitaries, a corrupt political class, and broken members of the public force between 1984 and 2002. “Wouldn’t it be better for a democratically elected president to be imprisoned in the United States, which is a foreign country, which is the worst kind of violence? Because it is better to die there in a fight on the corner than to be captured in a foreign country,” Petro said.
As the neighborhood burns, Colombia’s sovereignty becomes threatened, and the president’s life and freedom are in greater danger, much more than before. The traditional political class talks about the presidential elections as if the country is in a capsule, as if what happened abroad did not affect it and the president’s life means nothing to them. They talk about alliances and strategies, build fences, conduct polls and new figures jump into the political debate, while the far right searches for a narrative and a candidate to defeat Petro.
The right is working to make invisible what is happening in the Caribbean, downplay threats, and convince public opinion that impeaching, imprisoning, or killing Maduro, and in the process Petro, are necessary extreme solutions, which may not have serious consequences. Denying the extensive list of negative consequences for Colombia and the region. Its point, finally, is that fear of Trump promotes the return of a revanchist ideology to power, which accepts and reveres superpower, undoes the reforms and social progress of the government that is at its peak, and places war as a priority.
What is clear, so far, is that the discourse of the Democratic Left, supported by Petro’s achievements, has turned the Historical Charter into the first political organization in the country and the traditional historical parties into a minority, forcing them to join a coalition that captures Cesar Gaviria, Álvaro Uribe, Andres Pastrana, Germán Vargas Lleras and a long list of names and titles secondary to that ideology. As for the left, it has proven in the ballot boxes that it has large majorities that support it. They obtained 2.7 million votes in atypical elections, which foretells their arrival to the second round and their eventual victory.
How do they intend to defeat the left from the right? The answer is clear: resort to the old formula of calling for foreign military interventions, annihilating left-wing presidents like Allende, Roldós, Torrijos, and others, and imposing a new era of far-right governments that obey, do not demand, blindly implement and follow the master of the continent. There is no doubt that Petro’s removal from the political council is the basic formula for the right to return to power to talk about defending democracy, while Colombia plunges into the depths of more hatred, polarization, new wars, and the predation of freedom. The gunpowder is ready and a new social fund is about to explode on the continent.
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