Gustavo Petro, the president of Colombia, and Donald Trump have engaged in a new verbal exchange. Petro threatened legal action against Trump in US courts after the Colombian leader called his counterpart a “thug” who is “making a lot of drugs.”
On Wednesday, Trump told reporters at the White House that he was suspending all military aid to Colombia because of its alleged involvement in the international narcotics trade and that Petro Petro was instructed to “watch it.” This increased tension between Washington and Bogota.
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Trump remarked, “He’s a thug, he’s a bad guy, and he’s seriously hurting his country.”
Colombia, they are doing very poorly. Cocaine is produced there. He better watch them, or we’ll launch very serious legal action against him and his country, according to the US president.
Trump continued, “His country has become a deathtrap.”
Petro took to social media to declare that he would file legal action for Trump’s defamatory remarks in response to the threat from the US president.
I will defend myself judicially with American lawyers in the American justice system, Petro wrote on X.
He continued, “I will always oppose genocides and murders committed by those in the Caribbean,” adding that American society will be able to assist Colombians when it is necessary.
Petro continued, “We will work with the states that want our assistance to combat the drug traffickers.”
Trump threatened to raise tariffs on Colombian exports over the weekend by branding Petro a “drug trafficking leader.”
Petro reacted by accusing the US president of acting incoherently in Latin America and breaking international trade agreements. Additionally, Trump has also recalled Nicolas Maduro, Colombia’s president, as a drug trafficker, and said Colombian troops would not support a potential US military intervention in neighboring Venezuela.
What Colombian would support an invasion of a family home only to have them murdered, as happened in Gaza? said Petro.
At risk of harming the US and Colombia alliance
Trump’s most recent remarks were “unacceptable,” according to Colombia’s ambassador to the US, Daniel Garcia Pena, who was recalled from Bogota to speak to the AFP news agency.
According to Pena, “under no circumstances can one defend those kinds of accusations and threats that have no basis whatsoever,” warning that the 200-year relationship between Colombia and the US was in danger.
Following the US administration’s announcement in September to decertify Colombia’s efforts to combat drug trafficking, Trump and Petro are engaged in a growing verbal exchange.
Trump’s threats to Venezuela’s President Maduro and a growing US military presence in the Caribbean, including attacks on ships the US claims are involved in drug smuggling, are also brought on by this, without any supporting evidence.
For the first time in the region, US forces struck a vessel in international waters in the eastern Pacific Ocean, killing two people, according to US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth earlier on Wednesday.
Without providing any supporting proof, Hegseth claimed the victims were “narco-terrorists.”
34 people have been killed so far in the US military’s eighth recent attack on alleged drug traffickers on the high seas, including seven boats and one semi-submersible, according to US figures.
Although some of the vessels were destroyed off Venezuela’s coast, at least one of the vessels came from Trinidad and Tobago, and another from Colombia, their families told AFP.
According to international law experts, the Trump administration’s systematic killings of people in international waters are unlawful. They still have the right to a fair trial, even if it is revealed that those killed were drug traffickers.
Although Colombia is the top producer of cocaine worldwide, successive governments in Bogota have long worked with the US to reduce the country’s cocaine production, which is largely regulated by well-funded cartels, armed paramilitary groups, and rebels.
Petro claimed that during his time in office, 17, 000 cocaine factories in Colombia had been destroyed in a later post on social media on Wednesday.
Le dit that in my country, there are 17.000 cocaina destructidas. https://t.co/0KQclu7mC6
Source: Aljazeera
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