CNN exclusive: Colombian president says oil is ‘at the heart of’ US pressure campaign on Venezuela

By Isa Soares, Vasco Cotovio, Michael Rios, CNN

Bogotá, Colombia (CNN) — As US military activity ramps up in the Caribbean and the Pacific, Colombia’s president alleged the Trump administration’s pressure campaign on Venezuela is more about accessing the South American country’s oil than fighting drug trafficking.

“(Oil) is at the heart of the matter,” Gustavo Petro told CNN in an exclusive interview, noting that Venezuela has what are considered the largest oil reserves in the world.

“So, that’s a negotiation about oil. I believe that is (US President Donald) Trump’s logic. He’s not thinking about the democratization of Venezuela, let alone the narco-trafficking,” he continued, adding that Venezuela is not considered a major drug producer and that only a relatively small portion of the global drugs trade flows through the country.

Petro has been at odds with Trump since he returned to the White House. In the past year, the Colombian leader has harshly criticized the Trump administration’s immigration policies, its support for Israel and its military activity around Latin America.

On Tuesday, he accused the US of trying to impose its will on its neighbors, comparing its actions to imperialism. “The United States cannot be considered an empire, but one of the nations among others,” the president said.

CNN has reached out to the White House and the US State Department for comment.

Asked if he had a message to the American people, Petro replied, “My message is the one they give to all members of the United States special forces: Your function, as they say in the oaths, is to fight against oppression. I repeated that on the streets in the United States, and it also cost me,” Petro said.

He appeared to be referring to the US State Department revoking his visa at the conclusion of the UN General Assembly in September after he publicly called on American soldiers to disobey Trump and “not to point their rifles at humanity.”

It’s one of the many actions the Trump administration has taken against the Colombian leader in recent months.

In October, the US Treasury sanctioned Petro, accusing him of playing a “role in the global illicit drug trade,” a claim the Colombian leader has rejected.

The sanctions were imposed days after Trump said he would halt all US payments and subsidies to Colombia, claiming Petro “does nothing to stop” the production of drugs in his country.

Petro defended his efforts to fight the drug trade, telling CNN that his government had seized more cocaine than any other in history. “So much so that in recent years, I have managed to ensure that the growth in crops, which is stagnating, is far surpassed by the growth in seizures,” he said.

Asked why Trump hadn’t acknowledged this, Petro said: “Because of pride. Because he thinks I’m a subversive thug, a terrorist, and things like that, simply because I was a member of the M-19,” a Colombian guerrilla movement active in the 1970s and 1980s.

Petro also told CNN that he believes the US is comparing him to Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro.

His comments come a day after the US designated the Cartel de los Soles, an alleged drug trafficking group that the US has claimed Maduro leads, as a foreign terrorist organization. Venezuela has denied the claims, and experts say the phrase is more a description of allegedly corrupt government officials than an organized crime group.

While Maduro has a problem with democracy, Petro said he is not that convinced about the Venezuelan president’s drug trafficking links.

“The problem of Maduro is called democracy … the lack of democracy,” Petro told CNN, adding that “no Colombian investigation … has shown us a relationship between Colombian drug trafficking and Maduro.”

According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Venezuela is not a cocaine-producing country. Of the 3,700 tons of coca produced worldwide, more than 2,500 tons come from Colombia, while Venezuela does not appear on production maps, according to the UNODC, which said: “The majority of Colombian cocaine is being trafficked north along the Pacific coast.”

Investigators from the US Drug Enforcement Agency reached similar conclusions, writing in their annual report published in March that 84% of the cocaine seized in the US comes from Colombia.

Over the weekend, Colombian news program Noticias Caracol reported alleged links between Colombian officials and dissidents of the now-defunct rebel group FARC. According to the report, senior military and intelligence officials shared sensitive intelligence with the armed groups and advised them about how to secretly acquire weapons and evade military scrutiny.

Petro has denied the allegations but acknowledged to CNN on Tuesday that ties between officials and drug traffickers have existed for years, even before he took office.

A spokesperson for the US State Department said it is aware of the recent reports and urged Petro and other Colombian institutions to “thoroughly investigate these allegations and take all appropriate actions.”

Colombia has long been Washington’s most reliable ally in South America on security and defense. In 2022, the Biden administration designated the Andean country as a “major non-NATO ally.”

Despite recent tensions at the top, US-Colombia relations remain intact.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has made clear publicly that the administration’s issues are with Petro, not the institutions in Colombia.

“Our relationships with the people of Colombia, the economic sector of Colombia, the majority of people in politics in Colombia, and their institutions, in particular their defense institutions, are strong and enduring, and they’re going to be strong and enduring long after this individual is no longer the president there,” Rubio previously said.

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CNN’s Jennifer Hansler contributed reporting