August 25, 2025
Presidents of Venezuela and Cuba.
Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel reiterated on Monday the support of the largest of the Antilles for the Bolivarian and Chavista Revolution in Venezuela, led by President Nicolás Maduro, who faces threats from the United States government.
“All of Cuba’s solidarity and support for the Bolivarian and Chavista Revolution, led by President Nicolás Maduro,” the president said via social media.
Similarly, he pointed out that the strength of the Civil-Military Union in Venezuela will defeat imperialist threats and current attempts to sabotage the country’s development.
Venezuela has enlisted thousands of citizens in Bolivarian militias to preserve peace and defend its territory, in response to the announced deployment of US military forces and resources near its coast.
Petro: “The so called Cartel of the Suns is a fictitious excuse by the right wing to overthrow governments.”
Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro
Meanwhile Colombian President Gustavo Petro said Monday that the so-called Cartel of the Suns does not exist and denounced that narrative, used by imperialism to criminalize Venezuela and commit military intervention to control its resources, as a fictitious excuse by the extreme right to overthrow governments that do not obey them.
Through his social media accounts, the head of state stated that “Venezuela’s political problem will be resolved among Venezuelans themselves, through dialogue and more democracy.”
He pointed out that the trafficking of Colombian cocaine through Venezuela is controlled by what he calls the Drug Trafficking Board, whose leaders live in Europe and the Middle East. “I proposed to the U.S. and Venezuela that we work together to destroy that cartel. It is a matter of coordination, not submission,” said Petro, who days ago called for coordinated action against organized crime between the governments of both nations, in a climate characterized by cooperation and dialogue rather than impositions, as the White House has attempted to do in its relations with Mexico.
On August 20, in another post, the Colombian president responded to Senator María Fernanda Cabal : “The ‘Cartel de los Soles’ is not responsible for cocaine trafficking in Venezuela. That is a lie, like the weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, and it only serves as a pretense to invade countries.”
At the same time, he criticized Cabal for encouraging an invasion of Venezuela and warned that such rhetoric “will result in millions migrating to Colombia and the price of oil falling below $50,” with significant consequences for that country, such as the bankruptcy of the state-owned company Ecopetrol.
That day, he added that the Drug Trafficking Board manages cocaine trafficking through the Colombian Catatumbo, the plains, and the Bogotá Savannah, and that the U.S. government and European intelligence agencies have long had this information.
Petro has insisted that attention should not be diverted from the real operators of this criminal plot, among whom he has pointed to “members of a very important family in Colombia” and “a liberal politician.” He also mentioned leaders of terrorist groups, drug prosecutors, corrupt officials, and Italian or Albanian drug lords.
According to UN reports, 87 percent of the drugs produced in Colombia (1,845 tons) leave for the US and other markets via the Pacific—from Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru—while 5 percent leave for the Caribbean via Colombia’s La Guajira.
That document specifies that Venezuela does not produce drugs and is free of illicit crops and laboratories. Between January and August 2025, Venezuela has seized 52.7 tons of drugs that drug traffickers are trying to smuggle into the Caribbean through Venezuelan territory.
A few days ago, it was revealed that the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), which Venezuela considers to be the main global cartel, does not include the Cartel de los Soles in its 2024 and 2025 reports, suggesting that its mention is a publicity ploy aimed at achieving political objectives of interference in the region rather than concerns about security or public health.
Source: Cubadebate with information from Prensa Latina and Telesur