There is a coordination between the governments of Petro and Maduro to consolidate the mentioned transnational illegal zone.
The establishment of a binational zone between Colombia and Venezuela, recently announced by Nicolás Maduro and Gustavo Petro, raises concerns and questions about its legal implications and operational feasibility, as well as doubts about the true background of this agreement. Many believe it to be the officialization of an already existing transnational illegal activity.
From the Casa de Nariño and the Palacio de Miraflores, the “Binational Zone of Peace, Union, and Integral Development between Venezuela and Colombia” is described as an agreement to develop projects in areas such as culture, education, health, commerce, tourism, and others to be designated. The action space includes Táchira and Zulia states in Venezuela, and in Colombia it covers Norte de Santander, Cesar, and La Guajira.
Voices from both sides warn that this is merely a strategy for both leaders to perpetuate themselves in power; however, what causes the most unease is that these territories are dominated by criminal activity, particularly drug trafficking.
We are talking about the Catatumbo region, an area shared by Colombia and Venezuela that encompasses northeast Colombia and extends to the west of Lake Maracaibo in Venezuela. It is a space characterized by conflicts between armed groups and drug trafficking.
Officialization of a Binational Zone of Peace, Union, and Integral Development between Venezuela and Colombia
The delicate political and social situation between Colombia and Venezuela, coupled with the unclear interconnection of the Petro and Maduro governments, raises suspicions on both sides of the border and is the field in which the alliance would operate. It is said that the establishment of a binational zone between Colombia and Venezuela would merely formalize an existing transnational illegal zone.
A geographic space marked by betrayal, chaos, illegal trade, organized crime, tyranny, and opacity in state resource management. Conflicts that further threaten democracy and freedom in a region infiltrated by communism/socialism that is threatening to solidify.
Since Hugo Chávez came to power in 1999 and his connections with FARC and ELN, as well as Colombian governments from Juan Manuel Santos to Gustavo Petro, have allowed the escalation of violence and the strengthening of criminal activities, focusing especially on drug trafficking. The diminishing or disappearance of state capacity to combat this criminality—often turning into permissiveness—and the little or nonexistent eradication—some accuse as shelter—for illicit crops.
The Catatumbo region and the dynamics of organized crime, along with international geopolitical influences, threaten regional stability. There, state abandonment and failed policies against drug trafficking, as well as the ideological and operational infiltration of the left, create the perfect recipe for the institutionalization of criminality.
Catatumbo: Center of Drug Trafficking and Inter-Guerrilla Conflict
Fernando Vargas Quemba, director of the victims’ committee of FARC and a human rights defender, denies the presence of paramilitary groups in Catatumbo, asserting that what exists is a confluence of drug trafficking organizations, including ELN, FARC, the Clan del Golfo, and other groups originating from the guerrillas.
Catatumbo has established itself as a strategic zone for drug trafficking since the mid-1980s, with about 50,000 hectares of coca plantations in the area.
On the Colombian side, state abandonment and military dismantling, previously denounced, have been led by the efforts of Juan Manuel Santos, Iván Duque, and Gustavo Petro, which diminished the combat capability of the armed forces and implemented wrong policies, such as the suspension of the fumigation of illicit crops in favor of drug trafficking expansion.
The border between Venezuela and Colombia stands as a sanctuary and trafficking route for drugs, with Catatumbo becoming a critical area for the production of precursor alkaloids of cocaine, as well as the trade of this drug via Venezuela. It serves as a multi-lane highway where drugs and weapons circulate from Venezuela, along with illegal fuel.
The Colombian-Venezuelan border is a perfect hideout for armed groups that, under the cover of Chavismo, are entrenched in Venezuela. Vargas Quemba warns that the mass displacement of inhabitants from Catatumbo is not genuine but rather a forced mobilization or political operation by ELN in the region.
Maduro-Petro Institutionalize the Integrated Illegal Zone
There are reports of coordination between the Petro and Maduro governments to consolidate the aforementioned transnational illegal zone, now renamed a binational zone between Colombia and Venezuela, particularly at the border, with geopolitical and economic implications.
Nicolás Maduro is said to be promoting joint operations at the border—Catatumbo, Arauca, La Guajira—as part of a plan to establish military centers for subversive violence and to permit the free flow of drug trafficking.
Catatumbo is identified as a coca-growing center with routes leading through Venezuela. Meanwhile, the smuggling of Venezuelan gasoline into Colombia is a business coordinated by Venezuelan border authorities, enriching those involved.
Maduro’s economic zones appear to be merely facades to hide illegal activities and the lack of real economic development in Venezuela. The regime’s economy is allegedly based on the profits from crime, particularly drug trafficking, accuses Fernando Vargas Quemba.
Double Standards of the Left and Corruption in Power
Fernando Vargas Quemba describes Gustavo Petro’s criticism of the ELN, labeling it as hypocritical for losing its objectives and becoming drug traffickers. He notes that FARC believes drug trafficking is legitimate if it’s to further the revolutionary war.
Notably, the peace agreements with FARC included the subsumption of 42 crimes related to guerrilla offenses, including kidnapping, sexual violation, murder, and drug trafficking, which became categorized as political crimes exempt from imprisonment.
The presence of foreign powers with military and economic interests, such as China and Russia in Venezuela, along with Cuban troops, suggests a coordination of international leftist groups. Regional leftists are also involved, given the support that Maduro and Petro receive from Brazil, Mexico, Nicaragua, and some European countries.
Additionally, Vargas Quemba characterizes Petro’s government as brazenly corrupt, comparable to Ernesto Samper’s administration. He accuses it of institutional submission, as the Colombian leader concentrates power by controlling Congress, the Comptroller’s Office, the National Registry, the Prosecutor’s Office, and the military. The military and police are allegedly at his service.
Watch in Sin Filtros “Venezuelan Youth: Return or Stay Away from Chavismo?”: