«Il n‘y a pas un monde développé et un monde sous-développé, mais un seul monde mal développé»
CETIM – PRESS RELEASE
Geneva, 30 October 2025. CETIM expresses its deep concern and firm condemnation regarding the recent attacks and threats made by the United States of America against the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and the Republic of Colombia. These actions, undertaken under the pretext of a “war on drugs”, manifestly fall within a broader regime-change strategy targeting two sovereign states.
We are witnessing today a new phase of US imperialism, with renewed methods, but weakened by a structural and systemic economic crisis and by a decline that now appears irreversible. This renewed imperialism instrumentalizes the fight against narcotrafficking to legitimize interference in other countries and even to justify direct military engagement.
In recent weeks, the US has conducted several deadly airstrikes in the Caribbean Sea against vessels which, according to the Trump administration, and without providing any evidence, « were allegedly involved in drug trafficking ». According to a group of United Nations experts, these attacks on ships off the coast of Venezuela amount to extrajudicial executions.
It must be recalled that any foreign interference in the territory or territorial waters of a sovereign state constitutes a violation of international law and of the Charter of the United Nations. The threats issued by the US represent a blatant denial of the right of peoples to self-determination, aiming to prevent both countries from freely defining their own political, economic and social paths. Faced with states that refuse to submit to its interests, the US once again seeks to impose the law of the strongest at the expense of popular sovereignty.
In Colombia, the current government is striving to pacify the country – devastated by decades of civil war – by defending the most affected and marginalized communities, trying to promote wealth redistribution and an agrarian reform. These policies challenge entrenched power relations between the working class and the economic elites, running counter to the interests of agribusiness, transnational corporations and large landowners. Colombia also seeks to strengthen regional cooperation, diversify its alliances and free itself from the traditional tutelage of the US and NATO. It is precisely this growing autonomy that makes its government a primary political target today.
In Venezuela, one of the countries with the largest oil reserves in the world, the rhetoric of the “war on drugs” serves as a pretext for destabilization attempts. This follows a long history of foreign interference disguised as the fight against alleged electoral fraud, humanitarian interventions or anti-drug operations, aimed at overthrowing a legitimate government.
Consequently, the CETIM calls for:
• An end to all forms of interference and any political or military destabilization plans targeting Colombia, Venezuela or any other sovereign state;
• Latin American and Caribbean governments to strengthen regional cooperation to counter all forms of disguised external intervention;
• International and regional bodies, notably the Organization of American States (OAS) and the United Nations (UN), to activate all relevant mechanisms and organs to demand that the United States cease its threats of military intervention against sovereign states and ensure full respect for international law;
• The media and public opinion to pay close attention to this new attempt to undermine peoples’ and states’ sovereignty;
• The Swiss government and parliament, as well as European institutions, to exercise vigilance so that Switzerland and Europe are not complicit, by omission or indirect support, in imperialist actions.
Press release on .pdf file here
Contact:
Raffaele Morgantini, CETIM representative to the United Nations, raffaele@cetim.ch
