Key Points
- Petro said the U.S. bombed a Maracaibo “factory” tied to the ELN, but a local company described a wiring-triggered warehouse fire, not an attack.
- U.S. statements described a strike tied to drug trafficking at a dock or port area, not a factory, creating a dangerous “location gap.”
- That gap matters because Catatumbo’s cocaine corridor is already in open conflict, and one wrong assumption can reshape security decisions overnight.
Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro used social media to claim the Trump administration bombed a factory near Maracaibo, Venezuela, and warned it could be a site where coca paste is turned into cocaine.
He blamed the ELN and argued that its networks are “invading” Venezuela while feeding violence along Colombia’s border. Then the on-the-ground story took a sharper, more prosaic turn.
A Maracaibo-area company, Primazol, published multiple statements starting December 24 denying it had been bombed.
It said there was a midnight fire in a raw-materials warehouse, caused by an electrical wiring problem, and that firefighters controlled it in the early hours. The incident was real; the “bombing” label was the viral add-on.
At the same time, U.S. messaging pointed to a different target type and a different place. Trump described a U.S. bombing in Venezuela linked to narcotics, framed around a dock or port zone where boats are allegedly loaded.
Colombia Drone Strike Highlights Catatumbo Tensions
Separate reporting described uncertainty about the precise target, while another account characterized it as a drone strike on a remote dock believed to be used by Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua to move drugs onto boats.
Here is the core risk: when a strike is described in broad terms, the public will attach it to the first dramatic video that appears online, and mislocation quickly becomes miscalculation for governments, armed groups, and markets.
Petro’s deeper aim was Catatumbo, the border region where armed factions are fighting over routes and leverage in peace negotiations.
Independent research estimates Catatumbo holds over 30,000 hectares of coca, about 12% of Colombia’s total. Since mid-January 2025, violence there has killed more than 56 people and displaced over 54,000.
Petro also argued that only about 5% of Colombia’s cocaine passes through that corridor, and claimed U.S. missile strikes at sea hit boats carrying cannabis, while cocaine moves by submarine and container.
The wider backdrop is equally combustible. In October 2025, the U.S. Treasury announced sanctions against Petro under Executive Order 14059, deepening mistrust. Petro has also written that his U.S. visa was revoked and that he was accused without evidence of links to narcotrafficking.