Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro remains defiant despite escalating threats from his US counterpart Donald Trump
The two presidents have been at each other’s throats for months now over alleged US plans to oust Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and the bombing of suspected drug trafficking vessels in the Caribbean Sea.
Tensions rose sharply last week when Trump directly threatened Petro, stating that he “would be next” if he didn’t “wise up.”
Escalating US threatsHe’s going to have himself some big problems if he doesn’t wise up. Colombia is producing a lot of drugs, they have cocaine factories. They make cocaine as you know and they sell it right into the United States, so he better wise up or he’ll be next. He’ll be next. I hope he’s listening, he’s going to be next.
US President Donald Trump
President Gustavo Petro and the US acting ambassador John McNamara (Image: President’s Office)
Although Bogota and Washington DC were at odds earlier over the deportation of Colombian immigrants from the US and the ongoing genocide in Gaza, the tensions escalated to unprecedented levels after September 1, when the US military sank a boat off the coast of Venezuela, alleging that the vessel was trafficking drugs.
Petro claimed that the attacks on the vessels and the threats against Venezuela were part of a “war for oil and it must be stopped by the world.”
“The aggression is against all of Latin America and the Caribbean,” said the president.
Petro’s resistance was met almost immediately with the accusation that his administration “demonstrably failed” to uphold international obligations to combat drug trafficking.
Apart from decertifying Colombia as a reliable partner in the so-called “War On Drugs,” the Trump administration slapped sanctions on the president, his family, and Interior Minister Armando Benedetti “for their involvement in the global illicit drug trade.”
On top of that, Trump threatened military operations in Colombia to close cocaine-producing “killing fields” if Petro did not step up his counternarcotics offensive.
According to the US president, this foreign intervention would “not be done nicely.”
Trump went so far as calling his counterpart a “drug leader” and “a thug,” and cut military support to Colombia..
Earlier this month, Trump said that military strikes on land targets in Venezuela would start soon and that Colombia was another potential target.
I hear Colombia, the country of Colombia, is making cocaine. They have cocaine manufacturing plants, OK? And then they sell us their cocaine. We appreciate that very much. But yeah, anybody that’s doing that and selling it into our country is subject to attack.
US President Donald Trump
Petro responded defiantly to these threats, saying that threatening Colombian sovereignty is “to declare war,” and that the US should not risk “waking the jaguar.”
Come with me and I will show you how they are destroyed, but do not threaten our sovereignty, because you will awaken the jaguar. Attacking our sovereignty is declaring war. Do not damage two centuries of diplomatic relations.
President Gustavo Petro
Throughout the period of escalating tensions, the president reiterated that his US counterpart should visit Colombia, apparently believing that Trump would change his mind if he saw his government’s efforts to fight drug trafficking with his own eyes.
For months, Petro has insisted that “Trump is a very misinformed man about Colombia,” and is being deceived by “intermediaries” with links to “the mafia” in Miami and South America.
“They fuel Trump’s belligerence,” Petro told the United Nations General Assembly in September.
Among other things, Mr. Trump, I warn you that… the political force that lives next to you in Miami comes from a strong alliance between drug traffickers and Colombian politicians.
President Gustavo Petro
Petro and multiple of his cabinet ministers have stressed the importance of international cooperation to curb the international drug trade effectively and have urged an end to the air strikes on suspected drug traffickers in Colombian waters.
Revitalized Monroe DoctrineIn response to a visit of opposition mayors and governors to the Department of State in Washington DC last week, the president said that “the presence of regional leaders in the US has to do with the US government’s decision to intervene in the Colombian elections.”
The president of Colombia must guarantee free elections in Colombia and ask all Colombian people to keep their spirits free and shout “Free Colombia.
President Gustavo Petro
Petro’s accusation came days after political leaders from Honduras accused Trump of meddling in the presidential elections in the Central American country.
The president appeared to have become more wary of US intentions in Colombia and the region after the Trump administration published a new corollary of the Monroe Doctrine, which has justified US meddling and military invasions in Latin America since 1823.
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