Colombia’s Petro says US bombed a suspected ELN-run cocaine factory in Maracaibo, Venezuela, a day after Trump confirmed strikes on drug boat docks.
BOGOTÁ: Colombian President Gustavo Petro said on Tuesday that the United States bombed a suspected cocaine factory in the Venezuelan port city of Maracaibo.
“We know that Trump bombed a factory, in Maracaibo, which we fear was mixing coca paste to make cocaine,” Petro stated on social media platform X.
His post came a day after former US President Donald Trump confirmed strikes on a docking area for alleged drug boats in Venezuela.
It was not immediately clear if the factory and the dock area were the same location.
In a lengthy post, Petro suggested the facility was operated by the ELN guerrilla group.
The ELN partially controls the cocaine-producing Catatumbo region on the Venezuela-Colombia border.
“It’s simply the ELN. The ELN is permitting, with its trafficking and mental dogma, the invasion of Venezuela,” he wrote.
Trump said on Monday the US strikes happened “in the dock area where they load the boats up with drugs.”
Venezuela’s government has not made any official comment on the reported land strike.
The Trump administration has been increasing pressure on Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
It accuses Maduro of running a drug cartel and has imposed an oil tanker blockade.
Washington has also carried out over 30 strikes on boats alleged to be carrying drugs in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean.
Those maritime strikes have killed over 100 people.
