United States President Donald Trump has called his Colombian counterpart Gustavo Petro an “illegal drug leader”, announcing that the US will slash funding to the South American nation.
President Petro is “strongly encouraging the massive production of drugs” across Colombia, Trump claimed in a post on his Truth Social platform on Sunday, in which he repeatedly spelled it as “Columbia”.
He called Petro a “low rated and very unpopular” leader, warning that he “better close up” drug operations or the US “will close them up for him, and it won’t be done nicely”.
“The purpose of this drug production is the sale of massive amounts of product into the United States, causing death, destruction, and havoc,” Trump added, saying US payments and subsidies to Colombia were a rip-off.
“AS OF TODAY, THESE PAYMENTS, OR ANY OTHER FORM OF PAYMENT, OR SUBSIDIES, WILL NO LONGER BE MADE,” he wrote in capital letters. It was not clear what payments Trump was referring to.
Earlier on Sunday, Petro accused Trump’s government of assassination and demanded answers after the latest US strike in Caribbean waters.
The US said on Saturday it was repatriating to Colombia and Ecuador two survivors from that attack, the sixth since early September. At least 29 people have been killed in strikes that the US has said are targeting alleged drug traffickers.
Last month, the Trump administration accused Colombia of failing to cooperate in the drug war, although at the time Washington issued a waiver of sanctions that would have triggered aid cuts.
Colombia is the world’s largest exporter of cocaine, and the cultivation of the critical ingredient of coca leaves reached an all-time high last year, according to the United Nations. Last year, Petro pledged to tame coca-growing regions in Colombia with huge social and military intervention, but the strategy has brought little success.
‘We await explanations’
Relations between Bogota and Washington have frayed since Trump returned to office.
Last month, the US also revoked Petro’s visa after he joined a pro-Palestinian demonstration in New York and urged US soldiers to disobey Trump’s orders.
“I ask all the soldiers of the United States’ army, don’t point your rifles against humanity” and “disobey the orders of Trump,” Petro said.
Petro said early on Sunday that a Colombian man was killed in a September 16 strike and identified him as Alejandro Carranza, a fisherman from the coastal town of Santa Marta. He said Carranza had no ties to drug trafficking and that his boat was malfunctioning when it was hit.
“US government officials have committed murder and violated our sovereignty in territorial waters,” Petro wrote on X.
“The Colombian boat was adrift and had a distress signal on, with one engine up. We await explanations from the US government.”
Petro said he had alerted the attorney general’s office and demanded that it act immediately to initiate legal proceedings internationally and in US courts. He continued to post a flurry of messages about the killing.
“The United States has invaded our national territory, fired a missile to kill a humble fisherman, and destroyed his family, his children. This is Bolivar’s homeland, and they are murdering his children with bombs,” Petro wrote.
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