The socialist regime of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro rejected claims made by far-left Colombian President Gustavo Petro on Wednesday that Colombian drug trafficker Jobanis de Jesús Ávila Villadiego has formed an alliance with the National Liberation Army (ELN) Marxist terror group in Venezuelan territory.
Villadiego, also known as Chiquito malo (“Bad Little Boy”), is the current leader of the Colombian Clan del Golfo drug cartel, succeeding its previous leader Dairo “Otoniel” Úsuga David after he was arrested in 2021 and sentenced to 45 years on numerous drug trafficking charges in 2023.
Petro, through a Wednesday Twitter post, asserted that Villadiego had formed an alliance with ELN inside the territory of neighboring Venezuela. Petro added that Colombian authorities have already seized 32 tons of cocaine from the Catatumbo region and arrested “several mayors and politicians who were helping the drug traffickers.”
“Crop substitution in Catatumbo is essential to achieving peace. Violence in the Caribbean revolves around ports and extortion. I’ve decided to change the entire port administration,” Petro’s message said.
“There will be a special meeting today to intensify the offensive against Clan del Golfo,” he continued. “I expect from the Caribbean citizens, and with due confidentiality, information to find the leaders of the Clan.”
"Chiquito Malo" ha decidido una alianza con el ELN, del lado venezolano, ya se ha incautado 32 toneladas de cocaína del Catatumbo, y detenido varios alcaldes y políticos que ayudaban al narco.
— Gustavo Petro (@petrogustavo) April 30, 2025
La sustitución de cultivos en el Catatumbo es fundamental para alcanzar la la paz.
La…
Petro’s statements drew fierce criticism from the socialist Maduro regime.
The Colombian newspaper El Tiempo reported on Wednesday that it had obtained a copy of an official letter sent by the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry to its Colombian counterpart protesting Petro’s social media post and rejecting being held responsible for “dynamics that have their origin and expansion in Colombian territory.”
“Such statements, deeply inconsiderate, constitute a petty expression that ignores the firm commitment of the Venezuelan State to the fight against drug trafficking and transnational organized crime, as well as the important operational efforts that the Bolivarian National Armed Forces (FANB) have been carrying out for weeks to safeguard national sovereignty,” the note said.
Colombia’s Catatumbo region is presently the epicenter of a gruesome conflict between the Marxist ELN and the equally Marxist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) terrorist group over control of the region’s coca leaf crops, the main ingredient used in the manufacture of cocaine.
The conflict dramatically escalated in mid-January after ELN broke a tacit “non-aggression” pact that both terror groups had agreed upon in 2022 and which established limits on their respective areas of influence and illicit economic activities. The ongoing conflict left nearly 100 dead and over 60,000 local residents displaced as of March.
Several reports published in recent years have denounced that ELN began a process of expansion in Venezuelan territory that has effectively turned it into a “bi-national” guerilla force.
Although ELN has historically used Venezuela as a “refuge” from Colombian law enforcement operations since the 1980s, the Marxist terrorist group established a firm foothold in Venezuelan territory thanks to its friendly ties with the Venezuelan socialist regime, first established under the auspices of late dictator Hugo Chávez.
Unnamed human rights activists cited by the Venezuelan outlet Armando Info in April explained that ELN has a permanent presence “along the entire border” between both countries, especially in the neighboring states of Zulia and Táchira, and has used Venezuelan territory to stage operations in Colombia since at least 2020.
Venezuelan Interior Minister — and actively wanted drug lord — Diosdado Cabello refuted Petro’s accusations during the latest broadcast of his weekly socialist show Hitting with the Mallet, urging Petro to “not bring Venezuela into your problems.”
“I always ask myself why he [Petro] has to drag Venezuela into his schemes. In Venezuela we are fighting a frontal battle against all the drug trafficking, paramilitary, and terrorist mafias. What was achieved in Venezuela was thanks to Venezuelan Intelligence and Counterintelligence,” Cabello claimed.
“Why does the President of Colombia have to meddle with Venezuela? The problem is where the drugs are produced. Venezuela has deployed more than 5,000 troops of the Bolivarian National Armed Forces and police throughout its territory,” he added.
Cabello urged Colombia to stop blaming the Venezuelan regime and describing the neighboring country as “neighbors who throw stones at neighbors and you have to respond.”
