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| Photo: G.O.L. Bag of coca leaves Catatumbo, Colombia 2006 |
Petro earned a worldwide fame for challenging the powerful with his speeches on Palestine, climate change and also changes to the drug prohibitionist paradigm. He became famous for his speeches against Trump. He challenged the US government to imprison him and put on him one of the infamous orange uniforms of Guantanamo and other lugubrious places in the US penal gulag. He challenged the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, to put the orange pyjama on him, to try it, if he dared.[1] He compares himself to the slain president of Chile, Salvador Allende, murdered in a coup d’etat orchestrated by the CIA and he has publicly stated that they want to kill him.[2] He raises his hand with that pencil that he uses to draw attention and point to the path we have to go along as if it were Harry Potter’s wand. Some psychologist can explain that pencil to us and his talk of being on the same level as Allende.
But this has little to do with reality. Petro is not willing to die in his post. That discourse is reserved for public meetings, not for diplomacy and less still for state policy. As with many, though not all the militants of the former guerrilla group M-19, Petro is above all pragmatic, particularly when it has to do with his own welfare. There are those who like to say that the M-19 people were studious, they read, they were cultured, in a nutshell they were cadres unlike the majority of the other groups. It is true, that they were cultured and studied, but all that remains of that is their sense of smell, they can sense personal advantage and the gravy train at a distance. So, Petro will not sacrifice himself and even less so will the M-19 functionaries in his government. A lot of anti-imperialist talk, but when it comes to it, they come down on the side of those they believe will win. And in the case of Venezuela, rightly or wrongly Petro believes Trump will win.
In response to the right-wing journalist Patricia Janiot who took him to task for describing Kast, the president elect of Chile as a Nazi and never having called Maduro a dictator, Petro replied stating that Kast was the child of a Nazi who arrived after the second world war and that Maduro was a dictator but not a drug trafficker.[3] It was another step to put some distance between him and Maduro, as the first step was the decision not to attend Maduro’s swearing in ceremony as president. Now he highlights that he does not agree with the reasons given by Trump, but he does believe that Maduro should resign his presidency. He stated Venezuela needed a democratic revolution and a transitional government and furthermore offered to receive Maduro, a clear signal that even if the Venezuelans voted for Maduro, Petro believes he should step down from the government.[4] Another step from he who will not die at his post, to tell Trump that if he wants to take out Maduro well don’t lump me together with him, at least not in the same coffin.
In recent declarations he took another step in relation to Venezuela, regarding possible and actual attacks against the country by the US. According to Petro, nobody is to blame other than the ELN. In twisted declarations he said that the land attack carried out by Trump in Venezuela was in reality an attack on the ELN and a centre for processing their cocaine and that the ELN was to blame for allowing an invasion of Venezuela.[5] There is something worth clarifying. Up till 2016 when the FARC signed their peace agreement, they were according to the press, the Colombian government and various NGOs the main drug traffickers in the world, the largest cartel the world had ever seen. After signing the agreement, overnight, the ELN miraculously became the main cartel. The FARC lent themselves to that myth, as did their unarmed political militants, many of whom are functionaries in Petro’s government without ever acknowledging their militancy in the former guerrilla group and they continue their fight with the ELN guerrilla group. At least this time they are not shooting at the ELN and trying to liquidate another guerrilla group. This time they have left the task to the Colombian state and Trump, just like the NGOs who used to preach about peace, fought against fumigation and did not accept the narcoticised discourse about the Colombian armed conflict. This time they are part of the government.
Petro said the ELN was to blame for Trump killing Colombian citizens in the Pacific and the Caribbean. But he changed a key element. He accepted that they weren’t fishermen. He said that they weren’t transporting cocaine but rather cannabis. How he knows this, we do not know and given his deliriums on the issue, maybe he doesn’t know either.
According to the president, many of the boats attacked with missiles in anti-drugs operations - including seizures carried out by Colombia or with international support – were not carrying cocaine, but rather cannabis, a substance that “is legal in many parts of the US”.
Petro contended that by keeping cannabis illegal in Colombia, Congress had made a mistake and warned that that decision “has cost the lives of many humble boatmen”.
On that basis, Petro directly called into question President Donald Trump in stating that “he is totally wrong”, as he said that the cocaine going to Europe is leaving in submarines and containers, whilst “cannabis is being illegitimately attacked”.[6]
Once more Petro has shown his complete ignorance on the issue of drugs. It would seem he is advised by first year sociology students destined to fail the course, or he smokes a lot of what he criticises. No serious analyst on the issue would state what Petro said.
Yes, it is true that the recreational use of cannabis is legal in various US states, but at a federal level it is illegal. Furthermore, any substance covered by the Single Convention of 1961 cannot cross international borders without the backing of the INCB (International Narcotics Control Board). The international trade in medicinal heroin and cocaine has always been allowed and in recent years medicinal cannabis in some countries. Whilst some states in the US and countries like Uruguay allow the controlled sale of cannabis for recreational use, its international trade is not permitted. Only trade in medicinal use substances is allowed and in the USA there are no medicinal uses for cannabis at a federal level.
It is just not true that if the Colombian Congress had legalised recreational cannabis that would have resulted in a significant change in the attitude of the US. Firstly, at a federal level, the sale of recreational cannabis is not permitted and this causes problems for the sellers themselves in Colorado when they try to put their legal profits into the banking system. They have to resort to strategies more akin to drug trafficking and operate cash only businesses.[7] The legislation which would allow the cannabis sellers to access the federal banking system has not been passed.
Moreover, even in the case of the legal sale of controlled substances, its international sale is severely regulated and everything that takes place outside of that is drug trafficking. That is what the Colombian law, covered by international treaties says, as Colombia ratified the Single Convention a long time ago. It is also a gross stupidity to think that if Colombia had legalised cannabis that Trump would not have attacked the boats.
Additionally, if those boats were carrying cannabis, where were they going? Nobody says those boats were capable of travelling thousands of kilometres to the US. Are they fishermen or cannabis traffickers? Petro’s discourse makes no sense. He stated that:
With the increase in coca leaf crops in Latin America in response to a growing demand in Europe, the price of cocaine has collapsed. Cannabis and illegal gold are now more profitable than cocaine. It is time for substitution.[8]
When he started his presidency, he said the same of fentanyl. The reports from the UNODC (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime) say the exact opposite. Cannabis has always been the most consumed drug in the world, but the UNODC says that market that has most increased is the cocaine market. With both drugs the price has decreased slightly in the last decade but the purity of the cocaine and the potency of cannabis have increased. In the case of cannabis it has almost doubled and the purity of cocaine has increased by 34%.[9] Once again, Petro makes it up. His delirious statements on drugs would make anyone doubt themselves and ask whether he made those statements under the influence of the same drugs.
But there is another aspect, that the USA is practically self-sufficient in Cannabis for the illegal market. More nonsense from Petro, but one that is very dangerous because he is telling Trump that the boats were carrying illegal drugs. In the hippy parties of M-19 cannabis might be well thought of, but in the US legal system it is just as illegal as cocaine.
When Petro says that if they had legalised cannabis, something which should be done, Trump would not have attacked the boats, he lies to us, he deceives us. Trafficking in recreational cannabis is not permitted in the USA. The countries that tolerate or have legalised recreational use do not allow for its international sale.
The ELN is not to blame for the attacks in Venezuela. Petro’s discourse on drugs continues to be incoherent and in the context of the murder of Colombians on the high seas it is dangerous.
So much talk about his anti-imperialism, dying at his post, that they want to kill or imprison him and he ends up doing a favour to Trump by giving him excuses to attack Venezuela. And it turns out that the supposed laboratory in Maracaibo doesn’t exist and there isn’t even a report of an attack in the area.[10] All just to bow down to Trump hoping that he lifts the sanctions imposed on Petro. He has neither pride nor dignity and he is willing to sacrifice Maduro and Venezuela to save his own skin.
References
[1] El Nacional (23/11/2025) Petro envía contundente mensaje a Marco Rubio: “Si me va a meter preso, a ver si puede: si me quiere poner el piyama naranja, inténtelo”.
[2] Publimetro (23/09/2025) “Por esto me quieren matar”: Petro dice que es por hablar del narcotráfico y de Gaza.
[1] El Nacional (23/11/2025) Petro envía contundente mensaje a Marco Rubio: “Si me va a meter preso, a ver si puede: si me quiere poner el piyama naranja, inténtelo”.
[2] Publimetro (23/09/2025) “Por esto me quieren matar”: Petro dice que es por hablar del narcotráfico y de Gaza.
[3] El Tiempo (17/12/2025) Presidente Gustavo Petro llama ‘dictador’ a Nicolás Maduro, pero dice que ‘no hay evidencia de que sea narcotraficante’ como afirma Estados Unidos.
[4] CNN (11/12/2025) Colombia recibiría a Maduro si sale de Venezuela para una transición en el poder, dice el Gobierno de Petro.
[5] W Radio (30/12/2025) Petro confirm que EE.UU. bombardeó fábrica y acusó al ELN de permitir una “invasion”. José David Rodríguez.
[6] Ibíd.,
[7] US Congress (2023) Marijuana Banking: Legal Issues and the SAFE(R) Banking Acts.
[8] W Radio op. cit.
[9] EUDA (2025) European Drug Report 2025: Trends and Developments. h
[10] El País (31/12/2025) Petro señala que el ELN fue blanco de un ataque de Trump en Venezuela: “Tememos que mezclan la pasta de coca para hacerla cocaína. Camila Osorio.
⏩ Gearóid Ó Loingsigh is a political and human rights activist with extensive experience in Latin America.
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