United States attacks on drug boats spread across the Pacific, putting Colombia in its sights
The US military campaign in Latin America increases the pressure on Colombiaa major drug trafficking hub in the region as tensions rise between President Donald Trump and Colombian President Gustavo Petro.
In one of the deadliest days since the campaign began in September, the US military destroyed three ships in the eastern Pacific on Monday that the Trump administration said were smuggling drugs, resulting in the deaths of eight people, according to US Southern Command.
A change in geographical focus
Recent attacks by the US military indicate this a change in geographical focus after First attacks in the Caribbean.
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The US destroys three more boats in the Pacific
The five attacks carried out last month occurred in the Pacific and showed how the U.S. campaign has increasingly focused on Colombia, a country with a long Pacific coast that experts say is teeming with cocaine smuggling routes.
The Trump administration on Tuesday also designated Clan del Golfo, a powerful Colombian drug cartel, as a terrorist organization.
Of the 25 attacks since September 2nd 14 were in the Pacific and 11 in the Caribbeanwith a tally of 47 deaths in the Pacific compared to 48 in the Caribbean.
The recent attacks may also reflect an expansion of US priorities and have exacerbated the dispute between Washington and Bogota.
The American campaign began Attack on Venezuelan shipsA little actor in the global drug trade, while Colombia for a long timethe largest cocaine producer in the world. (Venezuela also has no coast on the Pacific).
Trump also lashed out at Petro after the Colombian leader emerged as one of Latin America’s harshest critics of the U.S. attacks, claiming they were assassinations. Trump responded with threats Cut aid to Colombiaalthough a significant portion is used to help the country combat the cocaine industry.
Petro shows off coca-growing areas amid tensions with Trump. Photo: ReutersAdditionally, Trump said last week: Colombia produced “a lot of drugs” and brought it to Petro’s attention. “So you better wake up or will come next“Said Trump. “He’ll be next soon.” I hope you’re listening; will come next“.
Like Petro, numerous experts on laws governing the use of lethal force have called the attacks illegal and argued that the government did so has not proven that an armed conflict exists between the United States and Venezuela.
The same argument could be applied to Colombia, which has one long history of cooperation with the United States in counternarcotics. Responding to the attack, Petro said: “Trump is being misled by his inner circles and advisers.”
Trump has falsely claimed that each ship destroyed saves 25,000 American lives. In the 12 months ending June 30, there were nearly 100,000 overdose deaths in the United States. However, this is the main reason for these deaths It was fentanyl.The It comes from laboratories in Mexico.
Venezuela and Colombia are, according to experts They play no known role in the fentanyl trade.
The South American cocaine route
On the other hand, South America produces cocaine. Most cocaine ends up in the United States It is smuggled from the Pacific coast of South America, mainly from Colombia, but also from Ecuador and Peru. Venezuela is a negligible producer of cocaine and what is transported through that country It is mainly aimed at Europe.
It is not clear how many of the ships wrecked in the Pacific may have left Colombia. The only two survivors who were repatriated to their countries of origin after the attacks were from Colombia and Ecuador.
While there have been recent U.S. attacks on ships in the Pacific, the broader U.S. military operation in Latin America is expanding to other targets, as evidenced by U.S. forces’ seizure of a tanker carrying Venezuelan oil in the Caribbean last week.
On Tuesday, Trump’s national security adviser and Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth briefed lawmakers on the ship attack, providing a new argument for focusing on Venezuela, according to people familiar with the matter: Maduro’s government, the officials said, has provided sanctuary to drug trafficking organizations allowed them to operate on Venezuelan territory.
Two Colombian Marxist guerrilla groups that financed their militant activities through cocaine trafficking – the National Liberation Army or ELNand the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, a now-defunct group called FARC– have sometimes operated from camps in the jungles of Venezuela, across the border from Colombia, according to crime and drug specialists in Latin America.
In October, the Venezuelan government said it had destroyed two camps of Colombian “drug trafficking terrorists” on its territory and found ELN pamphlets in one of them. The Trump administration said a boat that attacked on Oct. 17, killing three men, was connected to the ELN, which the State Department classified as a foreign terrorist organization in 1997.
