Far-left President of Colombia Gustavo Petro claimed on Monday the Venezuelan regime-run Cartel de los Soles international cocaine trafficking organization “does not exist.”
According to Petro, the cartel – named “Cartel of the Suns” after the sun symbol on the Venezuelan standard military uniform – is instead a “fictitious excuse used by the far-right to overthrow governments that do not obey them,” apparently referring to socialist Venezuela.
Petro made the bizarre, highly refutable claim as part of a larger rant on social media while quoting an excerpt from a Venezuelan regime-affiliated entity claiming that Venezuela is a “drug-free territory.” The Colombian president’s claims come at a time when the United States has escalated its efforts to combat drug cartels in Caribbean international waters — actions Venezuelan socialist dictator Nicolás Maduro claims are masking a plan for a U.S. “invasion” to oust him.
Maduro has begun “preparing” Venezuelans to fight against the “threat” of the United States’ purported invasion plans. The socialist dictator called upon Venezuelans to enlist in the regime-loyal Bolivarian militia this weekend. According to several reports, the regime’s numerous enlistment spots across the country saw minimal turnout and remained completely barren all day. Maduro claimed on Monday that the event was a “success” and called for an extension of the enlistment campaign for this weekend.
Petro, meanwhile, asserted that the passage of Colombian cocaine through Venezuela is controlled by a “drug trafficking junta,” a criminal network whose bosses “live in Europe and the Middle East.” Petro has repeatedly insisted that the “junta” is made up of the “dissident” faction of the Marxist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) terrorist organization and the Clan del Golfo cartel, among other criminal groups. In June, Petro claimed that the group operates out of Dubai and has “ordered” his death.
“I proposed to the U.S. and Venezuela that we destroy that cartel [the drug trafficking junta] together. It is about coordination, not submission,” Petro wrote.
“Venezuela’s political problem must be resolved among Venezuelans themselves, through dialogue and greater democracy. A decarbonized Venezuela must be the goal: Great Colombia, a global powerhouse of life and an essential pillar of Latin American unity and peace,” he continued.
In reality, and contrary to Petro’s assertions, the Cartel of the Suns is a U.S.-identified Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) led by top leading members of the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) and the Venezuelan military — who are openly subservient to the ruling socialists. The U.S. has long accused the Cartel of the Suns, whose name is a direct reference to the sun-shaped insignias worn by Venezuelan Generals, of seeking to “flood” the U.S. with cocaine to harm its people.
The Venezuelan drug cartel is also long believed to have forged deep alliances with FARC and other drug trafficking organizations such as Iran’s terror-proxy group Hezbollah, the Mexican Sinaloa Cartel, and Colombia’s Marxist National Liberation Army (ELN) terrorist organization. Intelligence reports revealed last week detailed that Iran, through its proxy Hezbollah, provided “financial, logistical, and doctrinal support, especially in the context of transnational cocaine trafficking” to the Cartel of the Suns and the FARC.
Maduro, who has clung to power through fraudulent “elections,” stands accused by the United States of being a leading member of the Venezuelan drug cartel. U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi announced this month that the United States doubled its bounty on information that can lead to Maduro’s arrest from $25 to $50 million.
“Maduro helped manage and ultimately lead the Cartel of the Suns, a Venezuelan drug-trafficking organization comprised of high-ranking Venezuelan officials. As he gained power in Venezuela, Maduro participated in a corrupt and violent narco-terrorism conspiracy with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization,” the U.S. State Department detailed this month.
“Maduro negotiated multi-ton shipments of FARC-produced cocaine; directed the Cartel of the Suns to provide military-grade weapons to the FARC;” the State Department continued, “coordinated with narcotics traffickers in Honduras and other countries to facilitate large-scale drug trafficking; and solicited assistance from FARC leadership in training an unsanctioned militia group that functioned, in essence, as an armed forces unit for the Cartel of the Suns.”
Petro initially responded to the increased bounty on Maduro by supporting the Venezuelan dictator and calling for the Colombian army to defend Colombians and Venezuelans as “the same people” against a purported “U.S. invasion” of Venezuela. Hours later, Petro claimed that his public calls were “false news from the Colombian press.”
Gustavo Petro is a longtime supporter of the use of cocaine, defending the drug at the United Nations. According to Petro, cocaine is “less harmful” than sugar. Petro once again called for the legalization of cocaine this year, deeming it “not worse than whiskey,” and suggested that it could be “sold like wine” if the drug were legalized. Petro argued that cocaine is only “illegal” because “it’s produced in Latin America.”
Under Petro, a former member of the Marxist M19 guerrilla and Colombia’s first leftist president, cocaine production in Colombia skyrocketed to all-time highs in 2023, according to the latest report published by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). The UNODC recorded a 53-percent increase in potential cocaine production in Colombia during that year.
Petro himself has been accused by former cabinet members of suffering from drug addiction. Between April and May, former Foreign Minister Alvaro Leyva released lengthy letters in which he levied claims of Petro’s alleged drug addiction based on the “direct knowledge that I have had and still have of situations and facts.” He did not specify which drug Petro allegedly abuses.
The former minister described several “embarrassing” and “scandalous” incidents involving Petro and other heads of state that he claimed served as evidence and called for Petro to resign from the presidency. Days after Leyva’s first letter, Interior Minister Armando Bennedeti, a longtime member of Petro’s innermost circle and one of the most controversial members of Petro’s cabinet, publicly admitted that he suffered from drug and alcohol addiction.
Leyva’s letters prompted the Colombian Congress to launch an ongoing inquiry to investigate Petro’s alleged drug addiction problems in June. The corresponding Congressional commission has not released a public update on the status of the inquiry at press time.
Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here
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