“That’s a negotiation about oil. I believe that is [U.S. President Donald] Trump’s logic,” Petro said in a CNN interview published Thursday. “He’s not thinking about the democratization of Venezuela, let alone the narco-trafficking.”

The Trump administration has publicized and celebrated its repeated strikes on boats believed to be transporting narcotics into the United States from Venezuela in recent months.

Earlier this week, the government designated a drug cartel with known links to Maduro, the “Cartel de los Soles,” as a foreign terrorist organization.

“It’s just about options, and we plan better than any organization in the world here; we want to make sure the president has options to include doing a whole lot, to include doing, you know, the cartel mission that we’re doing there as well,” Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said. “So nothing’s off the table, but nothing’s automatically on the table.”

Petro lamented American intervention abroad in the interview, warning that the United States “cannot be considered an empire” and must accept its position as “one of the nations, among others.”

Colombia recalled its U.S. ambassador back to Bogotá last month following a spat with the Trump administration and accusations from the White House that Petro was engaged in the same narco-trafficking as Maduro.

“President Gustavo Petro, of Colombia, is an illegal drug leader strongly encouraging the massive production of drugs, in big and small fields, all over Colombia,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “It has become the biggest business in Colombia, by far, and Petro does nothing to stop it, despite large scale payments and subsidies from the USA that are nothing more than a long term rip off of America.”

Senate Democrats have filed a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi and Hegseth demanding the release of classified information related to the strikes on Venezuelan boats.

FAA WARNS AIRLINES FLYING TO VENEZUELA OF ‘POTENTIAL RISK’ AS TRUP CONSIDERS STRIKES AGAINST MADURO

“Few decisions are more consequential for a democracy than the use of lethal force. We therefore believe that the declassification and public release of this important document would enhance transparency in the use of deadly force by our Nation’s military and is necessary to ensure Congress and the American people are fully informed of the legal justification supporting these strikes,” the senators wrote.

Trump and his administration have maintained that all boats sunk by the military have been operating in cooperation with drug cartels and that the U.S. is in a “non-international armed conflict” with the narco gangs.