United States President Donald Trump has renewed his threats against his Colombian counterpart, Gustavo Petro, warning that the South American leader could be the next target for his anti-drug campaign.
On Wednesday, at a White House roundtable with business leaders, one reporter asked Trump if he had spoken to Petro. That touched off a fiery response from the Republican leader.
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“I haven’t really thought too much about him. He’s been fairly hostile to the United States,” Trump began, before going on the offensive.
“He’s going to have himself some big problems if he doesn’t wise up,” Trump continued.
“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 because we don’t like people when they kill people.”
The remarks came shortly after Trump addressed a US military operation to seize an oil tanker in the Caribbean Sea, in an effort to punish Venezuela and Iran for alleged sanction violations.
Trump has long had a rocky relationship with Petro, the first left-wing leader in modern Colombian history.
But the Republican president’s aggressive comments towards Petro have strained relations with Colombia, which partnered with the US for decades as part of the global “war on drugs”.
A partner in the ‘war on drugs’
Until Trump’s return to the presidency in January, Colombia had been one of the largest recipients of US aid in South America.
The country not only contends with cocaine production within its borders but also a six-decade-long internal conflict, which pits government forces against left-wing rebels, right-wing paramilitaries and criminal networks.
Colombia is the world’s largest producer of coca, the raw material for cocaine and other products. Nearly 253,000 hectares, or 625,176 acres, are devoted to its cultivation, according to United Nations estimates.
Critics argue that coca eradication efforts largely disadvantage rural farmers without offering an alternative means to earn a livelihood.
Instead, Petro’s government has focused on attacking the criminal networks that convert the leaf into drugs.
But Trump and his allies have accused Petro of failing to take more aggressive action to stop cocaine production in Colombia.
The US president has repeatedly hinted he could take military action against Colombia over the issue.
On October 23, for instance, he called Petro a “thug” and said Colombia was “ not going to get away with it much longer”.
More recently, at a December 2 cabinet meeting, the US president spoke directly about the possibility of an attack.
“ I hear Colombia, the country of Colombia, is making cocaine,” Trump told his cabinet. “Anybody that’s doing that and selling it into our country is subject to attack.”
But Petro has defended his record, highlighting the campaigns his government has undertaken to destroy drug-producing facilities. He claims that as many as 18,400 narcotics laboratories have been dismantled during his time in office.
After December’s cabinet meeting, Petro swiftly responded to Trump’s military threats. In a post on the social media platform X, the Colombian president reminded Trump that his country has been integral in the “war on drugs”.
“If any country has helped stop thousands of tons of cocaine from being consumed by Americans, it is Colombia,” Petro wrote.
He also warned Trump not to “awaken the jaguar” by launching an attack on an ally.
“Attacking our sovereignty is declaring war,” Petro said. “Do not damage two centuries of diplomatic relations.”
Instead, he invited Trump to participate in the fight against cocaine trafficking firsthand: “Come to Colombia, Mr Trump. I invite you, so you can participate in the destruction of the nine laboratories we dismantle every day.”
In September, however, the Trump administration issued a notice that accused Colombia of having “failed demonstrably” to “adhere to [its] obligations under international counternarcotics agreements”.
The next month, the US made the historic decision to decertify Colombia’s anti-narcotic efforts. It was the first time since 1997 that the US had taken such a measure.
A wide-ranging beef
Petro and Trump, however, have clashed over issues beyond the fight against drug trafficking.
Just days into Trump’s second term, on January 26, the two leaders exchanged a volley of social media threats over a newly unveiled mass deportation effort in the US.
Petro objected to the harsh treatment of immigrants being expelled from the US, often without due process and in handcuffs.
“The US cannot treat Colombian migrants as criminals,” Petro wrote on social media. He warned he would not accept deportation flights from the US.
Trump responded by threatening to slap Colombia with 25-percent tariffs, an amount that would eventually rise to 50 percent. Petro ultimately backed down.
But the two leaders have continued to exchange blows. Trump, for example, has been highly critical of Petro’s “Total Peace” plan, a blueprint for negotiating with the rebel groups enmeshed in Colombia’s internal conflict.
The US president has also taken action to punish Petro personally. In September, Petro visited New York City to attend the United Nations General Assembly, where he spoke against Trump and participated in a pro-Palestinian rally.
Within hours, the Trump administration had yanked Petro’s visa, citing “his reckless and incendiary actions”.
The next month, it also sanctioned Petro, freezing any assets he may have in the US.
The Colombian president, meanwhile, has emerged as one of the most vocal detractors of Trump’s bombing campaign in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean.
Since September 2, the Trump administration has attacked at least 22 vessels, killing an estimated 87 people.
Trump has maintained that the victims are drug traffickers, though neither he nor his officials have offered public evidence to justify their claims. Colombians have been among the victims.
One boat strike on October 17 allegedly targeted members of Colombia’s National Liberation Army (ELN), a rebel group. Another attack, on October 16, left two survivors, one of whom was Colombian.
The family of one Colombian citizen, Alejandro Carranza, also filed a complaint this month with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), claiming the fisherman was killed in a strike on September 15.
