President Gustavo Petro of Colombia is taking a harder line against the National Liberation Army, or ELN, a leftist group experts call a powerful drug trafficker in Colombia and Venezuela.

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Diosdado Cabello, Venezuela’s interior minister, is accused by U.S. prosecutors of drug trafficking and is linked to repression at home, yet remains a powerful figure.

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Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said the ship seizures were meant to force Venezuela’s president Nicolás Maduro from power.