Photograph: Schneyder Mendoza/AFP/Getty
Colombia has mobilized its armed forces in response to U.S. strikes on neighboring Venezuela. President Gustavo Petro expressed concern over refugees fleeing the area in the aftermath of the attacks.
Petro posted on X that his government had held a national security meeting in which it was decided that forces should be sent to the border amid a potential “massive influx” of people leaving Venezuela, News.Az reports, citing The Guard
He also called for an emergency session of the UN securian.ity council.
Petro said: “The government of Colombia rejects the aggression against the sovereignty of Venezuela and of Latin America.”
Donald Trump claimed the US had “captured” the Venezuelan dictator, Nicolás Maduro, and his wife, Cilia Flores, and had flown them out of the country after overnight airstrikes.
Explosions rocked the capital, Caracas, before dawn on Saturday, with the Venezuelan government claiming the US had launched a series of attacks on civilian and military targets.
Maduro’s vice-president, Delcy Rodriguez, told state-run television that the whereabouts of the president and his wife were unknown and asked Trump for proof they were alive.
The neighbouring Guyanese government said it was monitoring the situation which was of “grave concern” to the wider region.
The president of Argentina, Javier Milei, an ally of Donald Trump, said: “Liberty advances! Long live liberty!”
The strikes were criticised by the Cuban president, Miguel Díaz-Canel, who called for an urgent reaction from the international community.