PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — The United States will slash assistance to Colombia because its leader, Gustavo Petro, “does nothing to stop” drug production, President Donald Trump said Sunday, escalating the friction between Washington and one of its closest allies in Latin America.
In a social media post, Trump referred to Petro as “an illegal drug leader” who is “low rated and very unpopular.” The Republican president warned that Petro “better close up” drug operations “or the United States will close them up for him, and it won’t be executed properly.”
Hours later, Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth introduced the most recent U.S. strike on a vessel that was allegedly carrying “substantial amounts of narcotics.”
He stated the vessel was related to a Colombian insurgent group — the Nationwide Liberation Military, or ELN — that has been in battle with Petro’s authorities. He didn’t present any proof for his assertions, however he shared a short video clip of a ship engulfed in flames after an explosion on Friday.
David Salazar/AFP by way of Getty Photos
Petro, who could be as vocal on social media as his American counterpart, rejected Trump’s accusations and defended his work to struggle narcotics in Colombia, the world’s largest exporter of cocaine.
“Trying to promote peace in Colombia is not being a drug trafficker,” Petro wrote. He steered that Trump was being deceived by his advisers, described himself as “the main enemy” of medicine in his nation and stated Trump was being “rude and ignorant toward Colombia.”
The Colombian Overseas Ministry described Trump’s assertion as a “direct threat to national sovereignty by proposing an illegal intervention in Colombian territory.” Protection Minister Pedro Sánchez instructed reporters that the nation “has used all its capability and also lost men and women fighting drug trafficking.”
Trump’s newest broadside in opposition to Petro raises the potential of an increasing conflict in Latin America, the place the U.S. has already elevated stress on neighboring Venezuela and its chief, Nicolás Maduro.
American naval ships, fighter jets and drones are deployed within the area for what the administration has described as an “armed conflict” with drug cartels. Trump additionally licensed covert operations inside Venezuela.
Not like Venezuela, Colombia is a longtime U.S. ally and the highest recipient of American help within the area. However coca cultivation reached an all-time excessive final 12 months, in accordance with the United Nations, and there was contemporary violence in rural areas the place the federal government spent years battling insurgents earlier than reaching a peace deal a decade in the past.
Elif Acar/Anadolu by way of Getty Photos
In September, the Trump administration accused Colombia of failing to cooperate within the drug struggle, though on the time Washington issued a waiver of sanctions that might have triggered support cuts.
Colombia obtained an estimated $230 million within the U.S. finances 12 months that ended Sept. 30, a drop from current years that exceeded $700 million, in accordance with U.S. figures.
Petro, Colombia’s first leftist president, has repeatedly feuded with Trump this 12 months. Petro initially rejected U.S. navy flights of deported migrants, main Trump to threaten tariffs. The State Division stated it might revoke Petro’s visa when he attended the U.N. Normal Meeting in New York as a result of he instructed American troopers to disobey Trump’s orders.
Petro and Trump have additionally been at odds over American strikes on boats within the Caribbean. On Sunday, Petro accused the U.S. authorities of assassination, pointing to a Sept. 16 strike that he stated killed a Colombian man named Alejandro Carranza. Petro stated Carranza was a fisherman with no ties to drug trafficking, and his boat was malfunctioning when it was hit.
“The United States has invaded our national territory, fired a missile to kill a humble fisherman, and destroyed his family, his children. This is Bolívar’s homeland, and they are murdering his children with bombs,” Petro wrote on social media. He stated that he requested his nation’s lawyer common’s workplace to provoke authorized proceedings internationally and in U.S. courts.
The White Home and the Pentagon didn’t instantly reply to requests for touch upon Petro’s accusations.
Regardless of Petro’s criticism, his authorities plans to prosecute the Colombian survivor of a newer U.S. strike on a submersible that was allegedly carrying medicine.
One other survivor was repatriated to Ecuador, the place the Ministry of the Inside stated he wouldn’t face expenses after prosecutors met with him and decided that he had not dedicated any crimes throughout the nation’s borders.
The ELN, which Hegseth stated was the goal of Friday’s strike, has lengthy denied any function in drug trafficking and provided to undergo the scrutiny of a world fee. It didn’t reply to Hegseth’s announcement. Colombian authorities frequently report the dismantling of cocaine laboratories and the seizure of medicine believed to belong to the guerrillas.
There have been seven U.S. strikes within the area since early September that the administration says are concentrating on alleged drug traffickers. At the very least 32 folks have been killed.
Trump stated Sunday that Petro had “a fresh mouth toward America.” He complained that drug smuggling continues “despite large scale payments and subsidies from the USA that are nothing more than a long term rip off of America.”
“AS OF TODAY, THESE PAYMENTS, OR ANY OTHER FORM OF PAYMENT, OR SUBSIDIES, WILL NO LONGER BE MADE TO COLOMBIA,” he added.
Elizabeth Dickinson, senior analyst for the Andes area at Worldwide Disaster Group, stated “it is befuddling and profoundly unwise of the United States to alienate its strongest military partner in Latin America at a moment when tension between Washington and Venezuela are at its highest point in recent years.”
She stated Washington and Bogota have lengthy handled their relationship as foundational, however “that wisdom is being thrown out the window, with really catastrophic effects.”
Colombia misplaced important U.S. funding when Trump slashed the U.S. Company for Worldwide Improvement earlier this 12 months. Extra cuts might have an effect on navy cooperation and undermine efforts to struggle insurgent teams.
“If that is cut, we will see a strategic loss of capability for the Colombian military and police at precisely the moment when they’re confronting the greatest security crisis in Colombia for over a decade,” she stated.
Coto reported from San Juan, Puerto Rico, and Suárez from Bogotá, Colombia.
This story has been corrected to replicate Trump referred to as Petro ‘an illegal drug leader,’ not ‘an illegal drug dealer.’
