Meet the US’s drug running friends: A history of narcotics involvement
Trump claims to be cracking down on drug gangs in Venezuela but pardoned a Honduran drug lord serving time in the US.
![A demonstration against the Contras, the US intervention in Nicaragua, Central America and Honduras [File: Rick Maiman/Sygma via Getty Images]](/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/GettyImages-1039970092-1764842063.jpg?resize=770%2C513&quality=80)
Trump claims to be cracking down on drug gangs in Venezuela but pardoned a Honduran drug lord serving time in the US.
![A demonstration against the Contras, the US intervention in Nicaragua, Central America and Honduras [File: Rick Maiman/Sygma via Getty Images]](/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/GettyImages-1039970092-1764842063.jpg?resize=770%2C513&quality=80)








President Gustavo Petro says purchase of warplanes is a ‘deterrent weapon to achieve peace’ amid ‘messy’ geopolitics.
US reportedly carries out 20th attack on a vessel in the Caribbean and Pacific, killing four people with ‘no survivors’.
Announcement comes after President Petro said Colombia would stop working with US over strikes on alleged drug boats.
Announcement comes as US aircraft carrier arrives in the Caribbean and Presidents Trump, Petro feud.

“The United States needs to revise its strategy … instead of insisting on criminalising the drug trade.”
Colombian fighters Alexander Ante, 48, and Jose Aron Medina Aranda, 37 were each sentenced to 13 years in prison.
Legal experts says US attacks amount to extrajudicial killing even if those targeted are suspected of drug trafficking.
The US focus on drugs and nearby Venezuela brings an international dimension to what was an internal Colombian conflict.

The US is deploying the world’s largest aircraft carrier to Latin America to curb drug trafficking.
The US has attacked several Venezuelan boats and deployed its largest military buildup in Latin America in decades.