BOGOTA, Aug. 10 (Xinhua) -- Colombian President Gustavo Petro on Sunday called on Latin American countries to safeguard regional sovereignty against possible U.S. military operations to combat drug cartels in the region.

"Any military operation that is not approved by our sister countries is an attack on Latin America and the Caribbean. It is a fundamental contradiction to our principle of freedom," Petro warned in a post on social media platform X.

His warning comes after U.S. newspaper The New York Times reported Friday that U.S. President Donald Trump had signed an executive order authorizing the Pentagon to carry out military operations against drug cartels in Latin America.

Petro, in his capacity as commander of the Colombian Armed Forces, announced that he had ordered the military to defend the country's freedom from foreign incursions and expressed his strong support for the people of Venezuela to do the same.

The Colombian president responded to a Venezuelan Armed Forces video rejecting any U.S. attempt to exploit anti-drug efforts as an excuse to destabilize the Venezuelan government led by President Nicolas Maduro, and called on both countries to work together to combat the scourge.

Petro said on X on Saturday that his government is willing to cooperate with the United States and any country to strengthen the fight against drug trafficking organizations through actions such as seizures and decisive blows to the finances of drug lords, as long as they are carried out based on respect for national sovereignty.

He called on the international community to focus on combating the most dangerous illegal drugs and to support vulnerable social groups such as farmers, indigenous communities, youth, and marginalized ethnic groups to help combat drug trafficking. ■