Colombia has launched a blistering attack against President Donald Trump on the world stage, likening him to Hitler and calling for criminal charges over his lethal boat strikes.
In his final address to the United Nations, Colombian President Gustavo Petro embarked on a tirade so scathing that some members of the U.S. delegation reportedly walked out of the assembly hall.
But inside, the leftist leader accused Washington of embarking on policies that were costing lives, telling the UN: “When we believed it was only the property of Hitler, Trump does not speak of democracy, he does not speak of the climate crisis, he does not speak of life—he only threatens, kills, and lets tens of thousands be killed.”
Petro took particular aim at the three lethal strikes that the U.S. has launched in the Caribbean Sea in recent weeks, which have so far killed 17 people.
The strikes in international waters have primarily focused on Colombia’s neighbor, Venezuela, but questions remain about their legality.
The administration, however, claims they are part of an expanded campaign against “narco-terrorists” and intended to stop the flow of illegal narcotics into America.
“To every terrorist thug smuggling poisonous drugs into the United States of America, please be warned that we will blow you out of existence,” Trump said in his address to the UN on Tuesday as he talked about the scourge of illegal immigration around the world.
“Your countries are going to hell,” the U.S. President added.
But Petro rejected America’s justification for the strikes, characterizing those on board the boats as “vulnerable youths fleeing poverty.”
He also questioned why U.S. forces would launch a missile if they could simply stop the boat and arrest the crew, which is usual maritime practice. He argued that what America was doing was akin to “murder.”
“Trump fires missiles at unarmed migrant boats and accuses them of being drug traffickers and terrorists, when they did not have a single weapon to defend themselves,” Petro said, according to the translation of his speech by Colombia’s longest-running English-speaking newspaper, The City Paper.
“The traffickers live in New York, just a few blocks away from here, and in Miami.
“There must be criminal charges opened against those officials of the United States, including the senior official who gave the order–President Trump, who allowed missiles to be fired against young people who simply wanted to escape poverty.”
The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House for a response to Petro’s speech, which foreign policy observers say could risk decades of strategic partnership between the two countries.
But the address was not the first time the two leaders have been at odds over U.S. policy.
Earlier this year, Trump sent two military transport planes with illegal immigrants to Colombia as part of his deportation strategy. But Petro refused to let them land, arguing that migrants should not be treated like criminals.
In response, Trump threatened Colombia with significant sanctions, including 25% tariffs on all Colombian imports, rising to 50%, as well as banking and financial sanctions.
An agreement was eventually released for the flights to resume with deportees arriving on Colombian military planes to ensure migrants had “dignity” and “decent conditions.”
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