President Trump accused Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro of being an “illegal drug leader” and announced that his administration is cutting off all subsidies to the Latin American country.
Trump further trashed his Colombian counterpart as a “very unpopular leader” and warned Petro to close up alleged drug fields, or else “the United States will close them up for him, and it won’t be done nicely.”
“President Gustavo Petro, of Columbia, is an illegal drug leader strongly encouraging the massive production of drugs, in big and small fields, all over Columbia,” Trump raged on Truth Social.
“It has become the biggest business in Columbia, by far, and 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.”
The US sent over $207 million worth of foreign aid to Colombia this year, according to foreignassistance.gov.
Trump’s announcement comes a day after Petro accused the US of “murder” over a Sept. 15 attack that the US president described at the time as killing “confirmed narcoterrorists from Venezuela” who were in international waters at the time.
“US government officials have committed a murder and violated our sovereignty in territorial waters,” Petro wrote on X Saturday, per a translation. “The Colombian boat was adrift and had its distress signal up due to an engine failure.”
“We await explanations from the US government.”
Colombia’s president claimed that the boat was used for fishing and not the transportation of drugs. Petro has been in power since 2022 and is a member of the left-wing Humane Colombia party.
A CNN report last week had similarly claimed that one of Trump’s recent strikes in the Caribbean had killed Colombian nationals, citing Pentagon officials.
Trump has been carrying out a series of military strikes against alleged drug boats in the Caribbean, oftentimes targeted at Venezuela, Colombia’s neighbor.
In August, his team doubled the bounty for information leading to the capture of Venezuela’s leader, Nicolás Maduro, to $50 million, accusing him of fueling the illicit drug industry.
All of that has been part of an effort to curtail the trafficking of illicit drugs into the US, a top campaign promise Trump made in the 2024 election cycle.
On Thursday, the administration carried out the sixth known attack on an alleged drug vessel in the Caribbean. Two individuals from Ecuador and Colombia survived the attack and will be returned home, the administration announced.
“The purpose of this drug production is the sale of massive amounts of product into the United States, causing death, destruction, and havoc,” Trump further fumed on Sunday about Colombia’s “killing fields.”
By RYAN KING/New York Post
