Trump Foreign Policy – Venezuela and Latin America

Colombia’s most‑wanted FARC dissident commander, Néstor Gregorio Vera ('Iván Mordisco'), has released a video calling on rival Latin American guerrilla groups — including the National Liberation Army (ELN) — to set aside years of bloody infighting and form a unified 'insurgent bloc' to resist President Donald Trump and a feared U.S.-backed intervention in Venezuela. The appeal, reported by Reuters and others, comes after the U.S. raid that captured former Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro and as Trump says the U.S. may remain involved in Venezuela for years, moves that have rattled insurgents who control drug routes, border territory and illegal mining around the Orinoco belt. Vera, flanked by armed fighters in camouflage, warned that 'the shadow of the interventionist eagle looms over everyone equally' and urged groups to 'forge the great insurgent bloc that will push back the enemies of the greater homeland.' Colombian President Gustavo Petro, a former guerrilla himself, has seized on the threat of such a united front to call for coordinated action with Venezuela’s new leader Delcy Rodríguez to 'remove' drug‑trafficking guerrillas, amid talk of a possible U.S.–Colombia–Venezuela operation that could finally target ELN sanctuaries along the 1,400‑mile border. For Washington, the message is clear: Trump’s Venezuela campaign is reshaping the insurgent landscape and could harden armed resistance across a region where U.S. forces and interests are already in the crosshairs.