Colombian President Gustavo Petro said on Saturday he has ordered military deployment to the Venezuelan border following US strikes on Venezuela and the capture of President Nicolas Maduro.
Petro called American actions an “assault on the sovereignty” of Latin America and said they would result in a humanitarian crisis.
While proposing that the situation could be resolved through “dialogue,” Petro said on X that he had also ordered the “deployment of the security forces” to the Venezuelan border.
Earlier, the Colombian leader had requested an “immediate” meeting of the Organization of American States (OAS) and the UN to “establish the international legality of the aggression” by the United States.
Petro has been a strong critic of Trump and his military deployments in the Caribbean to fight alleged drug trafficking vessels. Petro added in other posts to social media that he had put measures in place to “preserve stability at the border.”
Defense Minister Pedro Sanchez said the security forces had activated “all capacities” to prevent “any attempted terrorist attack” at the border by illegal groups such as the National Liberation Army.
Meanwhile, Russiahas demanded “immediate” clarification about the circumstances of the US abduction of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
“We are extremely alarmed by reports that Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife were forcibly removed from the country as a result of today’s US aggression. We call for an immediate clarification of the situation,” the Russian foreign ministry said in a statement.
US Intervention in Latin America
The United States today carried out airstrikes on Venezuela. According to U.S. President Donald Trump, the U.S. military captured and removed President Nicolás Maduro along with his wife from the country, and he is now in U.S. hands.
President Donald Trump said that US forces had captured Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro after launching a “large-scale strike” on the South American country.
“The United States of America has successfully carried out a large-scale strike against Venezuela and its leader, President Nicolas Maduro, who has been, along with his wife, captured and flown out of the Country,” Trump said on Truth Social.
“This operation was done in conjunction with U.S. Law Enforcement.”
This fits a long pattern: for decades, the U.S. has repeatedly intervened militarily in Latin America and backed or propped up dictators when it suited its interests. Both the late Hugo Chávez and Nicolás Maduro repeatedly accused Washington of sponsoring coup attempts against them.
A Timeline
1954: Guatemala
On June 27, 1954, Colonel Jacobo Arbenz Guzman, president of Guatemala, was driven from power by mercenaries trained and financed by Washington, after a land reform that threatened the interests of the powerful US company United Fruit Corporation (later Chiquita Brands).
In 2003, the United States officially acknowledged the CIA’s role in this coup, in the name of fighting communism.
1961: Cuba
From April 15 to 19, 1961, 1,400 anti-Castro militants trained and financed by the CIA attempted to land at the Bay of Pigs, 250 kilometres (155 miles) from Havana, but failed to overthrow Fidel Castro’s communist regime.
The fighting left more than a hundred dead on each side.
1965: Dominican Republic
In 1965, citing a “communist threat,” the United States sent Marines and paratroopers to Santo Domingo to crush an uprising in support of Juan Bosch, a leftist president ousted by generals in 1963.
1970s: Support for Dictatorships
Washington backed several military dictatorships, seen as a bulwark against left-wing armed movements in a world divided by Cold War rivalries.
It actively assisted Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet during the September 11, 1973 coup against leftist president Salvador Allende.
US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger supported the Argentine junta in 1976, encouraging it to end its “dirty war quickly,” according to US documents declassified in 2003.
At least 10,000 Argentine dissidents disappeared.
In the 1970s and 1980s, six dictatorships (Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Paraguay, Bolivia, and Brazil) joined forces to eliminate left-wing opponents under “Operation Condor,” with tacit US support.
1980s: Wars in Central America
In 1979, the Sandinista rebellion overthrew dictator Anastasio Somoza in Nicaragua. US President Ronald Reagan, concerned about Managua’s alignment with Cuba and the USSR, secretly authorised the CIA to provide $20 million in aid to the Contras (the Nicaraguan counterrevolutionaries), partly funded by the illegal sale of arms to Iran.
The Nicaraguan civil war, which ended in April 1990, claimed 50,000 lives.
Reagan also sent military advisers to El Salvador to crush the rebellion of the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN, far left) in a civil war (1980–1992) that resulted in 72,000 deaths.
1983: Grenada
On October 25, 1983, US Marines and Rangers intervened on the island of Grenada after Prime Minister Maurice Bishop was assassinated by a far-left junta, and as Cubans were expanding the airport, presumably to accommodate military aircraft.
At the request of the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS), Reagan launched Operation “Urgent Fury” with the stated goal of protecting a thousand US citizens.
The operation, widely deplored by the UN General Assembly, ended on November 3, with more than a hundred dead.
1989: Panama
In 1989, after a contested election, President George W. Bush ordered a military intervention in Panama, resulting in the surrender of General Manuel Noriega, a former collaborator of US intelligence, who was wanted by US justice.
Some 27,000 GIs took part in Operation “Just Cause”, which officially left 500 dead.
NGOs put the toll significantly higher, in the thousands.
Noriega would spend more than two decades in prison in the United States for drug trafficking, before serving additional sentences in France and then Panama.
By AFP
