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Marco Rubio, United States Secretary of State, assured that the regime of Nicolás Maduro “is not a legitimate government” and that, in his opinion, it is an organization dedicated to drug trafficking, according to an interview in which he also addressed the political instability of Colombia and the influence of criminal groups from Venezuela.
Rubio remarked: "The reward for Maduro now amounts to 50 million [dollars]". He added that, beyond calling him a dictator, "we do not recognize the legitimacy of his government. What he is, is the head of a logistics organization dedicated to drug trafficking, a cartel, the Cartel of the Suns, which is basically run by the military".
Rubio underlined that these illicit activities have military installations to facilitate trafficking and that the Venezuelan regime "has taken control of the national territory" to operate as a drug cartel.
According to Rubio, the Maduro regime must be confronted as what he considers it to be: "a narcoterrorist regime that has seized Venezuelan territory", extending its influence towards Mexican cartels, Ecuadorian gangs, and all of Central America.
"We have to take this seriously. They are flooding our country with poison every day, destroying and ending American lives, shattering American families, devastating American communities," said the Secretary of State, warning that "we have to confront these people, and we have to do it with more than just rewards."
On the other hand, Rubio referred to the death of the Colombian presidential candidate, Miguel Uribe, and requested that Colombian institutions, including the army, the courts, and Congress, maintain their independence to overcome this period of violence and uncertainty, and called for "the country to return to the path it was on," in view of the elections scheduled within a year, underlining the importance of Colombia as "one of the United States' strongest and closest partners in the region."
When referring to the recent death of the Colombian presidential candidate, Senator Uribe, Rubio expressed: "He comes from a family that has already been touched by tragedy. His own mother was well-known and was kidnapped by one of these drug cartels and died in an operation to try to rescue her." Rubio highlighted that the situation shows "the pain" that has marked Uribe's life and denounced the political violence in Colombia, recalling that the assassination occurred at a rally in the streets of Bogotá.
Rubio stated: "We are very concerned about Colombia. Unfortunately, the current president of Colombia, that Petro fellow, has been quite erratic in his decision-making and in some of the things he is doing. And that is a problem because there are drug trafficking gangs operating from Venezuela with total impunity." The Secretary of State considered that these criminal organizations project their power in Colombia and are destabilizing the country, which could set back decades of institutional progress against drug cartels.
