Colombia is shoring up its military presence on the border with Venezuela following the US operation in Venezuela at the weekend, which resulted in the capture of President Nicolas Maduro.
Mr Maduro pleaded not guilty to charges including narco-terrorism in a New York court on Monday. His wife, Cilia Flores, who was also captured, also pleaded not guilty.
State-owned Radio Nacional de Colombia said the government ordered 30,000 troops to be sent to the border region, with the aim of “anticipating and responding” to events in the area.
Angie Lizeth Rodriguez, director of the Administrative Department of the Presidency, said the order, issued on Sunday, was part of a strategy to “protect sovereignty, for defence and territorial integrity” and to safeguard border communities amid heightened regional tension.
The porous Colombia-Venezuela border is important to the bustling regional drug and weapons trade. Colombian soldiers and security forces often battle with guerrilla and criminal groups in the region.
Colombian President Gustavo Petro has frequently locked horns with US President Donald Trump over immigration and the drug trade, taking a defiant stance against Washington, with concerns high that the intervention will not stop with Venezuela.
In November, Colombian media reported that a US presidential aide was seen in the White House holding a dossier with an artificial intelligence-generated photo of Mr Petro and Mr Maduro in orange prison jumpsuits. The file also appeared to contain a document called “The Trump Doctrine for Colombia and the Western Hemisphere”.
“Although I have not been a military man, I know about war and clandestineness. I swore not to touch a weapon again after the 1989 Peace Pact, but for the homeland, I will take up arms, that I do not want, again,” Mr Petro said in a post on X on Sunday, referring to his former time as a guerrilla with the M-19 movement. “I am not illegitimate, nor am I a narco.”
Mr Trump on Sunday described Mr Petro as "a sick man who likes making cocaine and selling it to the United States". Colombia is the world's leading cocaine producer. In his post on X, Mr Petro emphasised his efforts to combat drug-trafficking groups and cautioned the US against intervening in Colombia.
“If you bomb even one of these groups without sufficient intelligence, you will kill many children,” he said. “If you bomb peasants, thousands of guerrillas will return in the mountains.”
His comments come after the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States failed to reach a consensus on condemning Mr Maduro's detention. Brazil and Colombia convened an emergency meeting of the organisation following the US military action.
The online meeting revealed deep regional fractures between left and right-wing governments. Argentina, Ecuador and El Salvador hailed Mr Maduro's detention, while others such as Colombia, Brazil and Cuba denounced it.
Cuba called Mr Maduro's capture “an existential threat of a historical nature, transcending all political and ideological lines”. It comes after Havana acknowledged that 32 Cuban citizens undertaking “official missions” were killed in the US strikes on Venezuela.
Following Mr Maduro's capture, Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel called the US actions “brutal and treacherous”.
“Cuba condemns and denounces these actions as an act of state terrorism; a criminal assault against our America, a zone of peace; a violation of the sovereignty of a nation that is a symbol of independence, dignity and solidarity; and an unacceptable attack on international law,” he said in a speech.
The US put Cuba under a full military blockade in 1962, following its communist revolution. It attempted to foment an unsuccessful coup against leader Fidel Castro in 1963, in what came to be known as the Bay of Pigs Invasion.
The country returned to the crosshairs of the US with the rise of Marco Rubio to the role of Secretary of State. Mr Rubio, whose parents fled to the US following the revolution, has expressed strong anti-Havana sentiment and said on Sunday that Cuba is “in a lot of trouble” for propping up Mr Maduro's government.
Mr Trump has said Cuba was "ready to fall". Trump aide Stephen Miller said on Monday the 32 Cubans killed were part of Mr Maduro's "elite" guard and that the Venezuelan leader had an "illicit" deal with Havana to provide protection as he did not trust his own people.
It is unclear what Cuba would be able to do in response to a US intervention. Its military focus is now primarily on defence and its arsenal is mostly made up of Soviet-era weaponry. Cuba has traditionally relied on Russia for military backing and during the Cold War era Havana sent troops to conflicts around the world.
That military alliance continues today – Russian warships frequently visit the waters around the island nation for joint naval drills, while thousands of Cubans are supporting Russian forces in Ukraine. Kyiv closed its embassy in Havana in October over the Cuban involvement in the war.
But with Moscow overextended in Ukraine, it is unlikely Russian forces will be sent to Cuba's aid in the event of a US attack.
