President Donald Trump issued a strong warning on Tuesday, December 2. The president said that any country that produces and traffics drugs into the United States"is subject to attacks" and suggested that he could also include Colombia in the ground counter-narcotics operations with which he is threatening Venezuela.
Furthermore, he insisted that"very soon" US attacks against drug cartels within Venezuelan territory will begin, following the operation against boats in the Caribbean, which he accuses of transporting drugs.
What did Donald Trump say about Colombia?
"I've heard that Colombia, the country of Colombia, produces cocaine. They have manufacturing plants, okay? And then they sell us cocaine. But yes, anyone who does that and sells it to our country is subject to attacks, not necessarily just Venezuela," Trump told reporters during a Cabinet meeting at the White House.
The president, who reiterated that attacks against drug cartels within Venezuelan territory will begin"very soon," insisted that, although"Venezuela has been worse than most", there are other countries that also send"their drug traffickers" to the United States.
The potential attacks on Venezuelan soil would signify an expansion of the military operation Southern Spear, which since September has destroyed 21 vessels in the Caribbean and the eastern Pacific, extrajudicially killing 82 suspected drug traffickers, the Pentagon reported on Tuesday.
The US military deployment in Caribbean waters, one of the largest in recent decades, has increased pressure on the head of the Venezuelan regime, Nicolás Maduro, whom Trump accuses of leading the Cartel of the Suns, designated by Washington as a foreign terrorist organization.
Last October, the Republican also leveled strong criticism against his Colombian counterpart, Gustavo Petro, whom he also identifies as a"drug trafficking leader," and suspended US aid to that country for its alleged inaction in the fight against drugs.
Petro denies the accusations and has called Trump"rude and ignorant toward Colombia." He has also rejected the US military deployment as "interference" and denounced the attacks against alleged drug-running boats, some of which were carried out in the eastern Pacific, near the Colombian coast.
Trump again defended the legality of these operations
In front of his Cabinet, Trump also again defended the legality of these operations and warned that the United States has the right to defend itself against the"wave of drugs" that the cartels send into its territory.
"On land it's much easier. We know the routes they take. We know everything about them. We know where they live. We know where the bad guys live. And we're going to start on that very soon too," the president told reporters during a meeting with his cabinet at the White House.
The president already warned last week that his Armed Forces would act"very soon" on the ground against alleged Venezuelan drug traffickers and announced to pilots and airlines that they should consider Venezuelan airspace "completely closed".
An attack on Venezuelan territory would be part of the operation dubbed by the Pentagon as Southern Spear, which has so far destroyed some twenty vessels in the Caribbean and the Pacific, leaving, according to the US, more than 80 people dead, accused of being drug traffickers.
