By Al Ahed Staff, Agencies
Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro stressed that as US military activity ramps up in the Caribbean and the Pacific, the Trump administration’s pressure campaign on Venezuela is more about accessing the South American country’s oil than fighting drug trafficking.
“[Oil] is at the heart of the matter,” Gustavo Petro said, noting that Venezuela has what are considered the largest oil reserves in the world.
“So, that’s a negotiation about oil. I believe that is [US President Donald] Trump’s logic. He’s not thinking about the democratization of Venezuela, let alone the narco-trafficking,” he continued, adding that Venezuela is not considered a major drug producer and that only a relatively small portion of the global drugs trade flows through the country.
Petro has been at odds with Trump since he returned to the White House. In the past year, the Colombian leader has harshly criticized the Trump administration’s immigration policies, its support for Israel and its military activity around Latin America.
On Tuesday, he accused the US of trying to impose its will on its neighbors, comparing its actions to imperialism. “The United States cannot be considered an empire, but one of the nations among others,” the president said.
Asked if he had a message to the American people, Petro replied, “My message is the one they give to all members of the United States special forces: Your function, as they say in the oaths, is to fight against oppression. I repeated that on the streets in the United States, and it also cost me,” Petro said.
He appeared to be referring to the US State Department revoking his visa at the conclusion of the UN General Assembly in September after he publicly called on American soldiers to disobey Trump and “not to point their rifles at humanity.”
It’s one of the many actions the Trump administration has taken against the Colombian leader in recent months.
In October, the US Treasury sanctioned Petro, accusing him of playing a “role in the global illicit drug trade,” a claim the Colombian leader has rejected.
The sanctions were imposed days after Trump said he would halt all US payments and subsidies to Colombia, claiming Petro “does nothing to stop” the production of drugs in his country.
Petro defended his efforts to fight the drug trade, stating that his government had seized more cocaine than any other in history. “So much so that in recent years, I have managed to ensure that the growth in crops, which is stagnating, is far surpassed by the growth in seizures,” he said.
Asked why Trump hadn’t acknowledged this, Petro said: “Because of pride. Because he thinks I’m a subversive thug, a terrorist, and things like that, simply because I was a member of the M-19,” a Colombian guerrilla movement active in the 1970s and 1980s.
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