Category World News

Colombian border region: Colombians are concerned about the shocking defection of Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro by the US military, which raises the possibility of a far-reaching repercussion.

The Colombian government announced plans to fortify its 2, 219-kilometer (1, 378-mile) eastern land border, a historically rebellious hotbed of cocaine production, and condemned Washington’s early Saturday morning attacks on Venezuela, which included strikes on military targets and Maduro’s capture.

Security experts warn that Maduro’s deposition could worsen Colombia’s already depreciating security situation, while refugee advocacy groups warn that the nation could face the brunt of potential migration waves brought on by the intervention’s effects.

According to President Gustavo Petro, the Colombian government held an urgent meeting on national security at 3 a.m. (09:00GMT).

In an X-post, the president announced the mobilization of state forces to secure the border, condemning the attack on Venezuela and Latin America.

The ELN factor

The country’s largest remaining rebel force, the National Liberation Army (ELN), has been vocal in its efforts to stop “imperialist intervention” as recently as December.

According to security analysts, ELN, which has control over nearly all of Colombia’s borders and borders, poses the greatest threat to its national security following the attacks.

According to Elizabeth Dickinson, Crisis Group International’s deputy director for Latin America, “there is a high chance now that the ELN will consider retaliation against Western targets,” including here in Colombia.

According to analysts, US intervention threatens the rebel group’s transnational operations because it is heavily involved in cocaine trafficking and operates on both sides of the border. It has also benefitted from ties with the Maduro government.

The ELN, which defends itself as a regional bastion against US imperialism, had already increased violence in response to White House threats to Venezuela and Colombia. It bombed state installations across Colombia in December as a response to US aggression and told Colombians to stay at home.

In order to prevent the ELN from retaliating, the Colombian government has increased security measures.

According to a statement released by Colombia’s Ministry of Defense on Saturday morning, “All capabilities of the security forces have been activated to protect the population, strategic assets, embassies, military and police units, among others, as well as to stop any attempted terrorist acts by transnational criminal organizations, such as the ELN cartel.”

“Mass influx of refugees”

Colombia also faces the brunt of any migration crisis brought on by a conflict in Venezuela, aside from the concern over increased violence.

Petro claimed that the government had increased humanitarian aid on its eastern border in an X post on Saturday morning, saying that “every one of our assistance resources have been deployed in the event of a large influx of refugees.”

Nearly 3 million of the roughly 8 million Venezuelan refugees who have left the country have now settled in Colombia. This is the highest number of Venezuelan refugees worldwide.

In order to house, feed, and treat refugees in a massive humanitarian operation following opposition leader Juan Guaido’s failed attempt to overthrow Maduro, a previous wave of mass migration in 2019 required a large humanitarian operation.

Given that Colombia lost roughly 70% of all humanitarian funds after the Trump administration shut down its USAID programs there last year, such an operation is likely to prove even more challenging.

According to Juan Carlos Viloria, a leader of the Venezuelan diaspora in Colombia, “there is a real possibility of short-term population movement, both precautionary and forced,”

To respond to potential arrivals and stop chaos and human rights violations at the border, “Colombia must prepare proactively by activating protection mechanisms, humanitarian corridors, and asylum systems,” added Viloria.

a further deterioration of US-Colombia relations

Petro, who has been at odds with Trump since the US president took office last year, is facing difficult questions due to Maduro’s removal, according to analysts.

Trump’s ire came in recent months when the Colombian leader claimed a Colombian fisherman had been killed in territorial waters and condemned the country’s military expansion. Trump called Petro a “thug” and “an illegal drug dealer,” and the White House then sanctioned him.

Petro is currently invincible because he sees Trump and his threats as real possibilities, according to Sergio Guzman, director of Colombia Risk Analysis, a security consultancy based in Bogota.

Trump has actually launched military strikes against Colombian drug factories on numerous occasions. Given their longstanding cooperation with Colombian security forces, experts say it’s unlikely that the White House will act unilaterally.

Petro previously called Maduro a “dictator” and joined the US and other countries in rejecting the strongman’s improbable re-election as president in 2024, despite the fact that he now denies Washington’s intervention in Venezuela.

The Colombian leader has chosen to stand up for national sovereignty and international law rather than supporting Maduro.

Petro demanded a UN Security Council emergency meeting on Saturday, which Colombia had just a few days before became a temporary member.

In an X-post, the president wrote, “Colombia reiterates its unwavering commitment to the principles enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations.”

President Donald Trump launched the new year with a typically spooky bang, striking massive airspots in Venezuela and reportedly capturing Nicolas Maduro, the country’s president, who has apparently been taken to an undisclosed location.

Given Trump’s history of using force wherever he goes without regard for the rule or for his own pledge to end international hostilities, the attack comes as a surprise.

Trump has been talking for months about the possibility of more US military action against Venezuela, as the US has apparently bombed boats deliberately off the country’s coast in the name of drug trafficking.

This has resulted in numerous extrajudicial killings and widespread war crimes accusations. But hey, it’s all in a day’s work for a government that cares little about human rights and other such ridiculous ideas when it comes to legal justification for its behavior.

Trump has also released blissfully ridiculous&nbsp allegations that Venezuela has stolen US oil, land, and other assets, while Trump has hijacked a number of oil tankers.

This most recent act of US aggression comes after decades of US sanctions that have severely harmed Venezuela’s economy and created a form of self-defense. Former UN special rapporteur Alfred de Zayas estimated that 100 000 Venezuelans had already perished as a direct result of coercive economic measures in 2020.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio informed him that Maduro had been detained to face criminal charges in the United States and that the US military personnel who were executing the arrest warrant were required to protect them.

This narrative falls far short, despite the Trump administration’s attempts to make Maduro the most recent international bogeyman and existential menace. Objectively speaking, the US is far more criminally resolute than the bumbling Maduro.

Similar to Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu, whose leader has repeatedly received praise from US presidents over the past two years for the Israeli genocide in the Gaza Strip.

No one in Washington would ever suggest that Netanyahu should be imprisoned in the US, which prefers to hurl billions of dollars at Israel’s military in order to aid in the mass slaughter.

Venezuela, which is oil-rich, has long been a thorn in the US empire, starting with Hugo Chavez, Maduro’s predecessor, who preached dangerous anti-capitalist ideas like universal healthcare.

The Trump administration is now accusing Maduro of being the head of “narcoterrorism,” which would be absurd if it hadn’t led to such massive destruction and a flagrant violation of international law.

Trump is hardly the only US president to have engaged in flagrantly illegal behavior abroad, despite his attempts to add a dramatic layer of dementedness to everything he does.

One recalls the case of late Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega, who remained on the CIA’s payroll for years despite the US government being aware of his drug trafficking activities.

The US turned on Noriega when he stopped being regarded as a valuable anti-communist ally in the 1980s, spontaneously transforming him into a face of evil.

Up to a thousand civilians were killed in the impoverished El Chorrillo neighborhood of Panama in December 1989 when President George H. W. Bush launched a patently insane attack there.

After a brief stay at the Vatican embassy in the Panamanian capital was rendered inhospitable by the US tanks parked outside, Noriega was eventually taken prisoner by US forces in 1990. He was subjected to a constant stream of musical torture, including Lee Greenwood’s God Bless the USA and Jon Bon Jovi’s song Wanted Dead or Alive.

Where else did the Panamanian get carted off to be tried? – the United States, where the government apparently found no justification for holding its former friend to a judge for a crime they had previously condoned.

Iraq war broke out in 2003 on the heels of Bush’s son, President George W. Bush, fabricating lies. The US claimed that the nation possessed WMDs and that it was under US control. Although those were undoubtedly nowhere to be found, the US army still systematically annihilated Iraqis in numerous locations and threw up hundreds of thousands of civilians.

The interim Iraqi government led by the US arrested, tried, and immediately executed Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

In every military intervention the US has made, nothing positive has generally happened. Contrary to Senator Lee’s claim that Rubio anticipates “no further action in Venezuela now that Maduro is in US custody,” the most recent attack on Venezuela won’t be the end all together.

As US impunity continues, the deadly spectacle is not finished, though.

In a dramatic overnight military attack that followed months of rising tensions, United States President Donald Trump announced on Saturday morning that his country’s forces had bombed Venezuela and taken First Lady Cilia Flores and President Nicolas Maduro.

Venezuela’s government said that the US had struck three states apart from the capital, Caracas, while neighbouring Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro released a longer list of places that he said had been hit.

There are few, if any, parallels between the operation and contemporary history. The US has previously captured foreign leaders, including Iraq’s Saddam Hussein and Panama’s Manuel Noriega, but after invading those countries in declared wars.

What we know about the US attacks and the events that caused this escalation is as follows:

What transpired during the attack?

At least seven explosions were reported from Caracas, a city of more than three million people, at about 2am local time (06: 00 GMT), as residents said they heard low-flying aircraft. According to Lucia Newman, editor of Al Jazeera’s Latin America program, at least one of the explosions appeared to be coming from Fort Tiuna, Venezuela’s principal military base.

Earlier, the US Federal Aviation Administration had issued instructions to American commercial airlines to stay clear of Venezuelan airspace.

As soon as the explosions occurred, Maduro declared a state of emergency, naming the US as the perpetrator of the attacks, claiming that it had struck Caracas as well as the nearby states of Miranda, Aragua, and La Guaira.

The US embassy in Bogota, Colombia, referred to the reports of the explosions and asked American citizens to stay out of Venezuela, in a statement. However, the diplomatic mission did not confirm US involvement in the attacks. That came more than three hours after the bombings, from Trump.

What did Trump say?

Trump claimed in a post on his Truth Social platform that the US had “successfully carried out a large scale strike against Venezuela and its leader, President Nicolas Maduro, who has been captured and flown out of the country along with his wife, shortly after 09:00 GMT.”

Venezuela has not yet confirmed that Maduro was taken by US troops — but it also has not denied the claim.

Trump claimed that the attack was carried out with US law enforcement, but he did not specify who was in charge of it.

Trump announced that there would be a news conference at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida at 11am local time (16: 00 GMT) on Friday, where more details would be revealed.

Where in Venezuela did the US attack?

While neither the US nor Venezuelan authorities have pinpointed locations that were struck, Colombia’s Petro, in a social media post, listed a series of places in Venezuela that he said had been hit.

They include:

• La Carlota airbase was disabled and bombed.
• Bombed and disabled Cuartel de la Montana in Catia.
• The Federal Legislative Palace in Caracas was bombed.
• The main military complex in Venezuela, Fuerte Tiuna, was bombed.
• An airport in El Hatillo was attacked.
• Bombings occurred at the F-16 Base No 3 in Barquisimeto.
• A private airport in Charallave, near Caracas, was bombed and disabled.
• Caracas’s presidential palace, Miraflores, was attacked.
• Large parts of Caracas, including Santa Monica, Fuerte Tiuna, Los Teques, 23 de Enero and the southern areas of the capital, were left without electricity.
• Central Caracas has reported attacks.
• A military helicopter base in Higuerote was disabled and bombed.

What led to these US attacks on Venezuela?

Trump has claimed that Maduro is responsible for the Venezuelan president’s involvement in the Tren de Aragua gang, which Washington has labeled a foreign terrorist organization in recent months.

But his own intelligence agencies have said that there is no evidence that Maduro is linked to Tren de Aragua, and US data shows that Venezuela is not a major source of contraband narcotics entering the country.

The US military launched a number of strikes on alleged narcotics-carrying ships in the Caribbean Sea in September. More than 100 people have been killed in at least 30 such boat bombings, but the Trump administration is yet to present any public evidence that there were drugs on board, that the vessels were travelling to the US, or that the people on the boats belonged to banned organisations, as the US has claimed.

The US’s largest military deployment in the Caribbean Sea, spearheaded by the USS Gerald Ford, the largest aircraft carrier in the world, came just as the US made its biggest military deployment in the area in at least ten years.

In December, the US hijacked two ships carrying Venezuelan oil, and has since imposed sanctions on multiple companies and their tankers, accusing them of trying to circumvent already stringent American sanctions against Venezuela’s oil industry.

Then, last week, the US attacked a “dock” in Venezuela where Trump claimed drugs were loaded onto boats.

Could all this be about oil?

Trump has so far portrayed his military and pressure tactics against Venezuela and the Caribbean Sea as being motivated by a desire to stop the flow of dangerous drugs into the US.

But he has increasingly also sought Maduro’s departure from power, despite a phone call in early December that the Venezuelan president described as “cordial”.

Venezuela’s oil reserves, which are unmatched anywhere in the world, totaled 303 billion barrels (Bbbl) in 2023, have been the subject of more senior aides of the US president’s aides in recent weeks.

On December 17, Trump’s top adviser Stephen Miller claimed that the US had “created the oil industry in Venezuela” and that the South American country’s oil should therefore belong to the US.

However, international law is clear: sovereign states, in this case Venezuela, own the natural resources within their borders under the principle of Permanent Sovereignty over Natural Resources (PSNR), despite US companies being the first to drill for oil in Venezuela in the early 1900s.

Venezuela nationalised its oil industry in 1976. Venezuela has a tense relationship with the US since Hugo Chavez, Maduro’s mentor and predecessor, took office in 1999.

Still, &nbsp, one major US oil company, Chevron, continues to operate in the country.

The Venezuelan opposition, led by Maria Corina Machado, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, has publicly demanded that the US step in and help with Venezuela’s new dispensation.

Oil has long been Venezuela’s biggest export, but US sanctions since 2008 have crippled formal sales and the country today earns only a fraction of what it once did.

How has Venezuela’s government reacted?

Vice President Delcy Rodrigues told state-owned VTV that Maduro and First Lady Flores had lost contact with Venezuela and had not received any information about their whereabouts, even though Venezuela has not confirmed their whereabouts.

She demanded that the US provide “proof of life” of Maduro and Flores, and added that Venezuela’s defences were activated.

The Venezuelan government previously stated in a statement that it “rejects, repudiates, and denounces” the attacks.

It said that the aggression threatens the stability of Latin America and the Caribbean, and places the lives of millions of people at risk. It claimed that the US had attempted to impose a colonial war and to impose a regime change, and that these efforts would fail.

What follows for Maduro?

In a statement posted on X, Trump’s Attorney General Pam Bondi announced that Maduro and his wife have been indicted in the Southern District of New York.

According to Bondi, Maduro has been accused of “Narco-Terrorism Conspiracy” and “Cocaine Importation Conspiracy” among other crimes. It was unclear if his wife is facing the same charges, but she referred to the Maduro couple as “alleged international narco traffickers”.

She continued, “They will soon face the full wrath of American justice in American courts.”

Mike Lee, a Republican senator from Utah, earlier posted on X that he had spoken to US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who had told him that Maduro had been “arrested by US personnel to stand trial on criminal charges in the United States, and that the kinetic action we saw tonight was deployed to protect and defend those executing the arrest warrant”.

US prosecutors charged Maduro with operating a cocaine-trafficking network in 2020.

But US officials remain silent on the illegality of Maduro’s capture and the attacks on Venezuela, which violate UN charter principles of sovereignty and territorial integrity of nations.

Close Maduro allies, Cuba and Russia, both condemned the attack. Colombia, which neighbours Venezuela and has itself been in Trump’s crosshairs, said that it “rejects the aggression against the sovereignty of Venezuela and of Latin America” – even though Bogota itself does not recognise Maduro’s government.

Most other countries have so far responded to US aggression with a relatively muted tone.

What’s next for Venezuela?

If Maduro has been allegedly sucked out of Venezuela by the US, then Rodriguez, the vice president, is constitutionally the one in charge.

Other senior leaders seen as close to Maduro and influential within the Venezuelan hierarchy include Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello, National Assembly President — and Delcy’s brother — Jorge Rodriguez, and military chief General Vladimir Padrino López.

However, it’s not clear whether Chavez and Maduro’s meticulous construction of the state apparatus will survive without it.

“Maduro’s capture is a devastating moral blow for the political movement started by Hugo Chavez in 1999, which has devolved into a dictatorship since Nicolas Maduro took power”, Carlos Pina, a Venezuelan analyst based in Mexico, told Al Jazeera.

Machado could be a front-liner contender to take Venezuela’s top job if the US does engineer a regime change, despite the uncertainty of how well-known that might be. In a November poll in Venezuela, 55 percent of participants were opposed to military intervention in their country, and an equal number were opposed to economic sanctions against Venezuela.

According to Christopher Sabatini, a senior research fellow for Latin America, the US and North America program at Chatham House, Trump might be mistaken if he believes the US can survive the chaos that will likely follow in a post-Maduro Venezuela.

“Assuming even if there is regime change – of some sort, and it’s by no means clear even if it does happen that it will be democratic – the US’s military action will likely require sustained US engagement of some sort”, he said.

Nicolas Maduro, president of Venezuela, and his wife have been captured by the US. Teresa Bo from Al Jazeera examines his political career and how his relationship with the US came to define his rule.