Colombia's President Gustavo Petro speaks in Bogotá, Colombia, on May 1, 2024. Photo: Luisa Gonzalez/Reuters.
Colombian President Gustavo Petro said Monday that the so-called Cartel of the Suns does not exist and denounced that this narrative, used by imperialism to criminalize Venezuela and carry out a military intervention to control its resources, is a fiction used by the far right to overthrow governments that do not obey Washington’s whims.
Through social media, the Colombian head of state stated that “Venezuela’s political problem is to be resolved among Venezuelans themselves, through conversation and greater democracy.”
He pointed out that the flow of Colombian cocaine through Venezuela is controlled by what he calls the “drug-trafficking junta,” whose bosses live in Europe and the Middle East. “I proposed to the US and Venezuela that we destroy that cartel together. It is about coordination, not submission,” said Petro, who a few days ago called for coordinated actions against organized crime between the governments of both nations, in a climate characterized by cooperation and dialogue, not impositions, as the White House has attempted to do in its relations with Mexico.
El cartel de los soles no existe, es la excusa ficticia de la extrema derecha para derribar gobiernos que no les obedecen.
El paso de cocaĂna colombiana por Venezuela, lo controla la Junta del narcotráfico y sus capos viven en Europa y Oriente medio.
Le propuse a EEUU y… https://t.co/TGqZMuzaWN
— Gustavo Petro (@petrogustavo) August 25, 2025
On August 20, in another social media post, the Colombian president responded to far-right Senator MarĂa Fernanda Cabal: “The one who controls cocaine trafficking through Venezuela is not the ‘Cartel of the Suns,’ that is a lie like Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction, and it only serves to invade countries.”
At the same time, he criticized Cabal for encouraging an invasion of Venezuela and warned that this speech “will result in millions migrating to Colombia and a drop in oil prices to less than $50,” with significant consequences for that country, such as the bankruptcy of the state-owned Ecopetrol.
That day, he added that the drug-trafficking junta controls cocaine trafficking through Colombia’s Catatumbo, the plains, and the Bogotá Savannah and that the US government and European intelligence agencies have long possessed this information.
Petro has insisted that attention not be diverted from the real operators of this criminal plot, including “members of a very important Colombian family” and “a liberal politician.” He also mentioned leaders of terrorist groups, narco-prosecutors, corrupt officials, and Italian and Albanian drug lords.
According to UN reports, 87% of the drugs produced a year in Colombia (1,845 tons) leave the Pacific Ocean for the United States and other markets from Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru, while 8% leave for the Caribbean through La Guajira in Colombia, and the export of only 5% are attempted through Venezuelan territory.
This document states that Venezuela does not produce drugs and is free of illicit crops and laboratories. Between January and August 2025, Venezuela seized 52.7 tons of narcotics which drug traffickers were trying to smuggle to the Caribbean through Venezuela.
Cabello noted that approximately 60% to 70% of narcotics that traffickers attempt to move through Venezuela to reach the US and European supermarket is currently seized by Venezuelan law enforcement agencies.
Days ago, it became known that the US anti-drug agency, the DEA—which Venezuela considers to be the main cartel globally—did not even include the Cartel of the Suns in its 2024 and 2025 reports, which suggests that its mention is a publicity ploy based on political objectives of interference in the region and not due to legitimate concerns regarding public safety or health.
(Telesur) with Orinoco Tribune content
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
OT/JRE/SL
