Petro: The US strengthened the Tren de Aragua gang with its blockade of Venezuela
The Colombian president accuses the US of being responsible for strengthening the Tren de Aragua criminal organization with its blockade and hostile policy toward Venezuela.
Gustavo Petro, in a message addressed Saturday night to Kristi Noem, the US Secretary of Homeland Security, highlighted how coercive measures against Venezuela have affected the country's youth.
"The blockade has forced hundreds of thousands of young Venezuelans, who were living well in Venezuela, into total exclusion in foreign neighborhoods and countries, and exclusion only leads to more violence, as demonstrated by the 76-year experience of Colombian violence."
In this regard, he accused the US of strengthening the Tren de Aragua gang by "blockading Venezuela."
This message from the Colombian president, published on his X account, comes amid new diplomatic tensions between Washington and Bogotá, following controversial statements by Noem about a meeting with Petro in Bogotá on March 27, which the US official described as "a rather tense encounter."
The US Secretary of Homeland Security accused the Colombian president of defending members of the Tren de Aragua gang and saying that some "were his friends." Petro responded, "I don't know why you say I had friends in the Tren de Aragua gang or in the cartels. I hope it's media speculation or friends of the mafia who want to keep Colombia and the US from talking to each other. I've never met a single cartel member in my entire life."
Ultimately, the president added in his letter to X, "the best way to end the violence of the Aragua Train is to allow the youth of Venezuela to live well in their country. It is the inclusion of Colombian youth populations that has allowed us to reduce violence in my country, and we still have a long way to go."
Similarly, and in reference to the discriminatory US policies toward migration implemented by the current Trump Administration, the head of state emphasized that migrants "are not criminals and their rights must be respected."
Noem, in her statements regarding the visit to Bogotá two weeks ago, alleged that Gustavo Petro had criticized the US government at that meeting, to which the president responded that these statements lack truth and asserted that the official "did not exactly understand" what he was saying, attributing the misunderstanding to a lack of language skills, acknowledging that he does not speak English.
Noem's visit to Bogotá was part of a tour of the region that began in El Salvador, where she visited the prison where the United States has sent dozens of undocumented immigrants under the justification that they are members of the Tren de Aragua criminal gang that emerged in Venezuela.
At the end of March, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro criticized U.S. policies and stated that "Venezuelan migrants are doubly victims," explaining that "in Venezuela they were victims of sanctions and the U.S. economic war, which forced them to migrate as economic migrants," and now they are "victims of shame" when Washington calls them "members of a gang of murderers, the Tren de Aragua, which was defeated" by Venezuela.
Maduro attacks the US for the "cruel kidnapping" of Venezuelan migrants
He asserted that Washington intends to characterize "all Venezuelan migration as a migration of criminals" and called for the immediate release of Venezuelan migrants kidnapped in El Salvador after being deported by the US.
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Post To: The Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security under the leadership of @POTUS Trump Conversation Gustavo Petro @petrogustav
Post
To: The Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security under the leadership of @POTUS Trump
Conversation
Gustavo Petro
@petrogustavo
Ms. Kristi, the Aragua train gang, which is a murderous criminal gang, was strengthened by yourselves by blockading Venezuela.
I demonstrated that Venezuelan migration to all of the Americas was stopped, simply by formalizing diplomatic relations and opening the closed border, a huge mistake by former President Duque.
The blockade has forced hundreds of thousands of young Venezuelans, who were living well in Venezuela, into total exclusion in foreign neighborhoods and countries. Exclusion only leads to more violence, as the 76-year experience of Colombian violence demonstrates.
More love for youth, end drug abuse, that's what I told you. Societies where youth lose hope and their individuals live in solitude fill their emptiness with noise and drugs. I told you that noisy societies have a silent soul. More inclusion for excluded youth around the world and in exile, more inclusion for young people who leave in desperation due to economic blockades, and the monsters of violence will end.
I told you my opinion frankly because you asked me. I understand diplomacy based on frankness; lies only bring wars, truth, peace. I told you my truth about the Colombian experience and migration. Colombia is the country of 100 years of solitude, which is nothing more than having killed each other for 100 years.
That's why I invited you to see Gabriel García Márquez's exhibition.
The best way to end the violence on the Aragua train is to allow the youth of Venezuela to live well in their country.
It is the inclusion of Colombian youth that has made it possible to reduce violence in my country, and we still have a long way to go. Many more universities, art and sports, community and solidarity, much more love.
I'm sorry you don't understand my words. Migrants are not criminals and their rights must be respected, as my adversary, Duque, has demonstrated, and as my government has demonstrated.
There will only be more violence if 14-year-old children are imprisoned or the Venezuelan population, who believed the US government, is taken to Bukele's prisons.
Love ends violence, Kristi, Jesus taught that a long time ago.
I don't know why you say I said I had friends on the Aragua train or in the cartels. I hope it's media hoaxes or friends of the mafia who want Colombia and the US not to talk to each other. I've never met a single cartel member in my entire life.
I said that by breaking the ties between political power and drug traffickers, the mafia would be weakened, and that I expected their collaboration to do so. That there would only be understanding between our intelligence agencies to imprison the most powerful bosses and examine their global finances, not to fumigate farmers.
That the mafia had been in the Casa de Nariño and in Congress, and in In Miami, Madrid, and Dubai, but he didn't wander around the peasant house.
I said there would be intelligence and cross-referencing of biometric data, but on criminals, not on the Colombian population.
I said I would help destroy the mafia to the core, because they were murdering my people, peace, and democracy, but that I wouldn't help destroy my people.
We talked about a meeting between Colombian peasants and American farmers, and despite this incident, I stand by my word. I think they are very similar in their hopes, and in their desire to own the land. In Colombia, millions of farmers are landless, and that's why we have violence and drug trafficking.
I told them that many Colombian leaders deceived them by showing them the fumigation and imprisonment of thousands of farmers and telling them that this would put an end to the mafia. Instead, they hugged the bosses in clubs and palaces, drinking whiskey, and together they compiled lists of those to be killed next.
I said that if less dangerous substances were legalized, the Colombian mafia would immediately be eliminated, and if that wasn't done, their ties with the political establishment would have to be severed.