Trump calls Colombia leader ‘illegal drug dealer,’ cuts aid

The United States will slash US assistance to Colombia because its leader, Gustavo Petro, “does nothing to stop” drug production, President Donald Trump said on 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 dealer” 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 done nicely.”

Hours later, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced the latest US strike on a vessel that was allegedly carrying “substantial amounts of narcotics.”

He said the vessel was associated with a Colombian rebel group - the National Liberation Army, or ELN - that has been in conflict with Petro’s government. He did not provide any evidence for his assertions, but he shared a brief video clip of a boat engulfed in flames after an explosion on Friday.

The State Department designated the group as a foreign terrorist organisation in 1997.

Petro, who can be as vocal on social media as his American counterpart, rejected Trump’s accusations and defended his work to fight narcotics in Colombia, the world’s largest exporter of cocaine.

“Trying to promote peace in Colombia is not being a drug trafficker,” Petro wrote, adding that Trump is being deceived by his advisers. Petro described himself as “the main enemy” of drugs in his country and said Trump was “rude and ignorant toward Colombia.”

In Colombia, Defense Minister Pedro Sánchez told reporters that his country “has used all its capability and also lost men and women fighting drug trafficking.”

Trump’s latest broadside against Petro raises the possibility of an expanding conflict in Latin America, where the US has already increased pressure on neighboring Venezuela and its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

American naval ships, fighter jets and drones are deployed in the region for what the administration has described as an “armed conflict” with drug cartels. Trump also authorised covert operations inside Venezuela.

Unlike Venezuela, Colombia is a longtime US ally and the top recipient of American assistance in the region. But coca cultivation reached an all-time high last year, according to the United Nations, and there has been fresh violence in rural areas where the government spent years battling insurgents before reaching a peace deal a decade ago. 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 received an estimated $230 million in the US budget year that ended Sept. 30, a drop from recent years that exceeded $700 million, according to US figures.

Petro, Colombia’s first leftist president, has repeatedly feuded with Trump this year. Petro initially rejected US military flights of deported migrants, leading Trump to threaten tariffs. The State Department said it would revoke Petro’s when he attended the UN General Assembly in New York because he told American soldiers to disobey Trump’s orders.

Petro and Trump have also been at odds over American strikes on boats in the Caribbean.

On Sunday, Petro accused the US government of assassination, pointing to a Sept. 16 strike that he said killed a Colombian man named Alejandro Carranza.

Petro said 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 said that he asked his country’s attorney general’s office to initiate legal proceedings internationally and in US courts.

The White House and the Pentagon did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Petro’s accusations.

Despite Petro’s criticism, his government plans to prosecute the Colombian survivor of a more recent US strike on a submersible that was allegedly carrying drugs.

Associated Press