US Deploys Aircraft Carrier to the Caribbean

As the United States continues to escalate threats and military pressure against Venezuela and now Colombia as well, on Oct. 14 “Secretary of War” Pete Hegseth announced the deployment of the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford to the Caribbean. The most capable and lethal strike platform in the world adds to the already massive military buildup in the Caribbean of 10,000 U.S. troops, at least eight warships, P-8 surveillance planes and F-35 jets deployed amid the Trump administration’s alleged counter-narcotics operations. U.S. troops are also reportedly deploying to Trinidad and Tobago, mere miles from Venezuela, for five days of coordinated “military exercises.”

“It’s past time for Maduro to go. Keep it up, President Trump,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham in an X post on Oct. 24.

Venezuela is “a candidate for decisive military action on land, sea, or air” because it has for years been “a safe haven for drug cartels poisoning America,” Graham added.

During a White House address on Oct. 23, President Donald Trump said, “Now they’re coming in by land. … I told them the land is gonna be next.”

“It’s very hard to find any floating vessel right now. In the Pacific or in the Gulf,” Trump added.

Acknowledging the escalation that a land invasion would represent, Trump said, “We may go to the Congress and tell them about it, but I can’t imagine they’ll have any problem with it.”

On Oct. 21 and 22, the U.S. military also expanded maritime operations to Colombia’s Pacific coast, striking two boats near the South American country. The attacks marked the eighth and ninth such vessels blown up by the U.S., allegedly targeting drugs, but the first beyond the Caribbean Sea. Colombian President Gustavo Petro has called these attacks “murders” and violations of the country’s sovereignty.

At least 43 people have been extrajudicially executed in a total of ten boat bombings since September.

Petro defies Trump

Petro has been one of the most outspoken defenders of Venezuela amid the latest bout of American aggression, condemning the U.S. military attacks in the region. At the United Nations General Assembly in September, Petro said the passengers on the boats were not narco traffickers but rather “poor young people from Latin America.” He went as far as to call for investigations of the U.S. president:

“Criminal proceedings must be opened against those officials, who are from the U.S., even if it includes the highest-ranking official who gave the order: President Trump.”

Friction was already present then, especially after the U.S. revoked the Colombian president’s visa over his remarks at the General Assembly. Yet the tension sharply escalated in recent days. At a news conference earlier this month, Petro declared, “Oil greed is behind the strategy that is firing missiles at fishermen.”

The Colombian leader asserted that the U.S. aggression in the Caribbean and against Venezuela has nothing to do with fentanyl or drugs.

“What they want is Venezuela’s oil.”

To that end, the leftist president claimed, the U.S. is conducting “extrajudicial executions” in the Caribbean in violation of international law. He also made a post on X, directly implicating the White House in the killing of a Colombian fisherman in a missile strike in mid-September.

“U.S. government officials have committed a murder and violated our sovereignty in territorial waters,” Petro wrote.

Petro said that fisherman Alejandro Carranza “had no ties to the drug trade” and emphasized that the small Colombian vessel had experienced an engine failure and “had its distress signal up,” seeking help when it was targeted by the U.S.

Trump unleashes threats on Colombia, and bombs off its coast

Petro’s comments aggravated Trump, who took to his Truth Social platform Sunday to call the Colombian president an “illegal drug leader.” 

In an apparent threat of direct military confrontation, Trump said Petro “better close up these killing fields immediately, or the United States will close them up for him, and it won’t be done nicely.”

In response to Trump’s threats, Colombia recalled its ambassador to the U.S. and asserted that Colombian troops would not support a potential military intervention in Venezuela.

“What Colombian would help invade where their own family lives, only to see them killed like in Gaza?” Petro said.

The diplomatic row continued through the week, with Trump announcing on Wednesday that all funds to Colombia had been cut and threatening higher tariffs.

“What happens if they take away aid? In my opinion, nothing,” Petro said at a news conference on Thursday. Confident in his country’s ability to mitigate the effects of tariffs, he claimed that Trump is unlikely to raise tariffs on oil and coal because of the potential consequences. Since these industries represent 60% of Colombia’s exports to the U.S., the majority of their trade is relatively safe, while alternative markets exist for other industries that may be more vulnerable.

Trump also doubled down on his characterization of the Colombian president as a drug leader, as well as his threats of military confrontation.

“They’re doing very poorly, Colombia. They make cocaine. They have cocaine factories. … He better watch it or we’ll take serious action against him and his country,” Trump said.

On Oct. 24, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced sanctions against Petro and members of his family, alleging “cocaine production in Colombia has exploded to the highest rate in decades, flooding the United States and poisoning Americans.” Bessent insisted that “President Petro has allowed drug cartels to flourish and refused to stop this activity.”

In response, Petro declared that he would take action in U.S. courts against Trump’s accusations.

“I will defend myself judicially with American lawyers in the American justice system” from the “slanders” by high-ranking officials, said the leftist leader.

While Washington decertified Colombia’s efforts to combat drug trafficking in September, claiming that the country is not doing enough to counter the narcotics trade, Petro says 17,000 cocaine factories have been destroyed under his government.

He has also pointed out that drug trafficking is concentrated in Ecuador. “It already seems that most of the export of cocaine through the Pacific is being made from the ports of Ecuador” turning it into the “largest cocaine export platform in the region.”

Amid the threats and accusations from the White House against Petro and his country, the U.S. military targeted two small boats off the coast of Colombia last week.

Attempts to bolster the Colombian far-right ahead of elections

Petro also alleged that Trump’s military and diplomatic pressure against Colombia aims to boost far-right forces in the country ahead of elections.

Colombia’s presidential election is scheduled for May 31, 2026, and legislative elections will be held in March.

Petro, Colombia’s first leftist president, was elected in 2022. Since Colombia’s constitution doesn’t allow consecutive terms, Petro will be leaving office next year. While his administration pursued major reforms in labor, social welfare and foreign policy, many of those reforms have struggled in a divided Congress and a deeply polarized country.

In this context, the nation’s next president could have a major impact on whether Petro’s agenda and direction for the country continues, is slowed, or totally reversed.

Leading up to the elections, voters are undoubtedly paying close attention to how well this administration manages diplomatic crises, economic policy and security. At such a critical time, threats, condemnations and mischaracterizations from the U.S. could feed opposition narratives about a leftist government being incompetent, “soft” on security or uncooperative with counter-narcotics and the U.S. military. Cuts in aid also represent a form of pressure, reducing the state’s capacity and even security in some cases, opening opportunities for the far right.

On the other hand, Washington’s aggression also risks provoking deeper unity in the country behind the leftist, sovereigntist direction. As Petro frames the U.S. missile strikes as “violations of sovereignty” while the U.S. continues to threaten confrontation or invasion, an anti-imperialist sentiment could quickly grow among his base.

At a critical moment for Colombia, Petro has argued that the purported drug-trafficking operations are instead a political tactic that aims to tip the scales internally in favor of U.S. interests.

Regional solidarity with Colombia and Venezuela 

The solidarity between Colombia and Venezuela has taken center stage as both countries find themselves under increasing pressure from the U.S. But there is a wave of solidarity growing across Latin America and the Caribbean and the rest of the world amidst the escalating aggression.

“The U.S. president has unleashed a series of lies and falsehoods aimed at linking President Petro and his government to illicit drug production,” the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America proclaimed in a statement on Oct. 21.

The U.S. is launching “threats of military action and unilateral coercive measures that constitute a flagrant violation of Colombia’s national sovereignty,” the regional forum declared.

On Oct. 22, Venezuela’s Minister of Defense Vladimir Padrino Lopez announced that Colombia has the full support of his country’s armed forces.

“Anyone who refuses to kneel before U.S. imperialism risks being called a narco trafficker,” he said. The insult “offends not only [Petro] but also the Colombian people.”

In a televised address, Venezuelan President Nicólas Maduro said, “Colombia knows that we are one. … If they touch Venezuela they touch Colombia, we are one homeland of the heart.”