Colombia, in its role as pro tempore president of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (Celac), has convened an urgent virtual meeting of the bloc’s foreign ministers to address escalating tensions following the deployment of U.S. warships in the Caribbean.
Colombia’s Foreign Ministry said the virtual meeting provides an opportunity for member states to “exchange views and reflections on the regional situation” within a framework of respect for international law, sovereignty, cooperation, and political unity. “The member states hope that this space will allow for an open and constructive discussion of concerns surrounding recent military movements in the Caribbean and their possible implications for regional peace, security, and stability,” reads the ministry’s official statement.
The call comes at what Venezuela describes as one of the most tense moments in its recent history with Washington. The U.S. has deployed naval assets – including three destroyers equipped with Aegis missile systems and a nuclear-powered submarine – close to Venezuela’s coast, framing the move as part of a wider anti-drug trafficking strategy.
President Nicolás Maduro’s government has condemned the deployment as a “hostile action” and “a threat of unprecedented proportions.” Caracas has responded by mobilizing the Bolivarian Militia and filing a formal protest at the United Nations, invoking the 2014 Celac declaration that designated Latin America and the Caribbean a “Zone of Peace.” Venezuela’s ambassador to the UN, Samuel Moncada, accused Washington of orchestrating “a large-scale propaganda campaign” to legitimize possible military intervention in a country that, he argued, “poses no threat to others.”
Foreign Minister Yván Gil, representing Venezuela at the Celac meeting, called on the regional forum to take a firm stance. “It is necessary that this organization come forward to condemn and demand the withdrawal of U.S. ships,” he said. He added that only 5% of cocaine produced in Colombia attempts to transit through Venezuela, and that 70% of that amount is intercepted by Venezuelan authorities, disputing Washington’s claim of the existence of a transnational drugs cartel known as El Cartel del los Soles.
Colombia’s Foreign Minister, Rosa Villavicencio, used her intervention at the session to push back against the logic of military escalation. “We reject the logic of intervention,” she said, calling on the region to safeguard its status as a Zone of Peace and to address security concerns through diplomatic and multilateral channels. Protecting that zone, Villavicencio stressed, “does not mean denying our internal differences or minimizing the seriousness of transnational organized crime. It means confronting it with institutions, judicial and police cooperation, and mutual trust – not with military threats that inevitably generate negative implications for human security, trade, tourism, and the economies of all our countries.”
Meanwhile, Maduro escalated his rhetoric in a press conference in Caracas, warning that Venezuela was facing “the greatest threat seen on our continent in the last 100 years.” He claimed that eight U.S. military vessels, armed with 1,200 missiles and backed by a nuclear submarine, were positioned near Venezuela’s coast. “They opted for the worst mistake: military pressure,” he said, denouncing the deployment as “extravagant, unjustifiable, immoral, absolutely criminal, and bloody.” While insisting that “Venezuela is a pacifist country,” Maduro declared, “we are a people of warriors.”
The diplomatic gathering underscores Colombia’s increasingly delicate role in regional geopolitics. President Gustavo Petro has sought to strengthen ties with Maduro, who remain isolated internationally and with a US$50 million bounty for his arrest. Sources in Caracas claim that Maduro spent the Labor Weekend inside a bunker.
For its part, Colombia emphasized that the objective of the ministerial dialogue is not confrontation but understanding. The Foreign Ministry reaffirmed Celac’s commitment to unity and cooperation, stressing that dialogue is essential to identify “coordinated solutions for the region’s collective benefit.”
As military tensions mount off Venezuela’s coast, the Celac meeting is a test of the bloc’s ability to act as a platform for concertation in a region historically divided between Washington’s security priorities and calls for greater sovereignty. Whether the meeting produces a collective condemnation, as Venezuela demands, or a more cautious call for dialogue may determine how united Latin America appears in the face of renewed geopolitical pressure in the Caribbean.
