President Donald Trump announced on social media that he has spoken with Colombian President Gustavo Petro, just days after threatening to invade his country.
In a Wednesday night Truth Social post, Trump wrote that he had spoken to Petro, “who called to explain the situation of drugs and other disagreements that we have had.”
“I appreciated his call and tone, and look forward to meeting him in the near future‚” Trump continued, before adding that arrangements were being made between Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Colombia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Rosa Yolanda Villavicencio, for a meeting at the White House.
Days earlier, during a Saturday morning Fox & Friends interview following his invasion of Venezuela and abduction of President Nicolás Maduro, Trump hinted that Venezuela may just be the first of many Latin American countries he invades.
“Something’s going to have to be done with Mexico,” he told the hosts, before making even more explicit threats against Petro and Colombia.
“I stick by my first statement. He’s making cocaine,” Trump said of the Colombian leader. “They’re sending it into the United States, so he does have to watch his a--.”
Trump doubled down on his comments on Sunday, telling reporters aboard Air Force One that Colombia is “very sick.”
“Run by a sick man, who likes making cocaine and selling it to the United States. He’s not going to be doing it very long.”
When asked by a reporter whether this meant the U.S. would conduct a military operation in Colombia, the president replied, “Sounds good to me.”
Colombia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned Trump’s comments as “an undue interference in the internal affairs of the country, against the norms of international law,” while Petro responded to Trump’s threats in a lengthy post on X, warning him that if Trump were to arrest him, he would be unleashing “the people’s jaguar.”
Petro, who is considered Colombia’s first modern left-wing president, also outlined actions he had taken against drug kingpins in his country, including ordering the largest seizure of cocaine in history and halting the growth of coca leaf crops, while moving away from militarized solutions to combating drug production and trafficking.
“Though I have not been a soldier, I know war and clandestinity. I swore never to take up arms again after the 1989 Peace Pact, but for the Fatherland I shall take up arms once more, though I do not wish to,” Petro wrote.
“Know that you face a commander of the people. Colombia free forever.”
