President Donald Trump said Sunday he would slash U.S. Funding to Colombia because the country’s leader “does nothing to stop” drug production, in what is the latest sign of friction between Washington and one of its closest allies in Latin America.
TL;DR
- President Trump threatened to cut U.S. funding to Colombia over drug production, calling President Petro an "illegal drug dealer."
- Trump accused Petro of encouraging massive drug production and doing nothing to stop it, despite U.S. payments.
- Petro alleged U.S. involvement in an assassination and sought explanations for recent strikes killing alleged drug traffickers.
- Colombia is the world's largest cocaine exporter, with coca cultivation reaching an all-time high last year.
In a social media message, Trump identified Colombian President Gustavo Petro as “an illegal drug dealer”, who is “low rated and very unpopular.”. He cautioned that Petro's “better close up” drug activities “or the United States will close them up for him, and it won’t be done nicely.”
While at his Florida resort, Mar-a-Lago, Trump posted on his Truth Social account that Petro is “strongly encouraging the massive production of drugs, in big and small fields” in Colombia. He initially misspelled the country as Columbia but then removed the post and re-uploaded it with the correct spelling. “Petro does nothing to stop it, despite large scale payments and subsidies from the USA that are nothing more than a long term rip off of America,” Trump stated.
“AS OF TODAY, THESE PAYMENTS, OR ANY OTHER FORM OF PAYMENT, OR SUBSIDIES, WILL NO LONGER BE MADE TO COLOMBIA,” Trump said. He also said Petro had “a fresh mouth toward America.”
On Sunday, Petro alleged that the U.S. Government was involved in assassination and sought explanations following the most recent American strike in Caribbean waters. The U.S. Announced on Saturday that it was returning two survivors of that strike, the sixth since September, to Colombia and Ecuador. The U.S. Stated that at least 29 individuals have perished in strikes aimed at alleged drug traffickers.
In September, 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.
The State Department recently announced it would revoke Petro’s visa during his New York visit for the U.N. General Assembly, citing his involvement in a protest where he urged American soldiers to disobey Trump’s orders. Petro stated this, according to “I ask all the soldiers of the United States’ army, don’t point your rifles against humanity” and “disobey the orders of Trump,”.
President Petro stated that a Colombian national, identified as Alejandro Carranza, a fisherman from Santa Marta, perished in a September 16th strike. He asserted that Carranza had no connections to drug trafficking and that his vessel was experiencing mechanical issues at the time of the incident.
“U.S. 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 indicated he's informed the attorney general's office and urged swift action to launch legal cases both internationally and within U.S. Jurisdictions. He continued to share numerous updates on the killing into Sunday morning.
“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.
Noticias Caracol, a Colombian news program, reported that the man injured in the most recent strike was hospitalized after being repatriated and is currently in serious condition.
The article cited Armando Benedetti, Colombia's Interior Minister, who stated that the Colombian “will be prosecuted, he will be received — forgive the harsh expression — as a criminal, because so far what is known is that he was carrying a boat full of cocaine, which in our country is a crime, and despite the fact that it was in international waters, his repatriation will be as if he were being prosecuted in the United States.”
Petro said the man had been aboard a “narco submarine.”
On Sunday, Ecuador's Ministry of the Interior informed The Associated Press that the U.S. Had sent back an injured Ecuadorian man following the latest strike. Authorities named him Andrés Fernando Tufiño Chila and stated a physician determined he was in good condition.
Authorities indicated that two prosecutors conferred with Tufiño Chila and concluded he hadn't violated any laws within the nation's territory, with no supporting evidence found.