Two leaders engaged in a bitter verbal confrontation over the past year, until they agreed to smooth things over in a telephone conversation lasting more than an hour, on Wednesday (7)
The president of the , , announced this Friday (9) that his Colombian counterpart, Gustavo Petro, will visit the White House in the first week of February. “I am sure that [a visita] will be very good for Colombia and the United States, but cocaine and other drugs MUST BE PREVENTED from entering the United States,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.
Os. The United States ended up withdrawing Petro’s visa after a public intervention in New York, on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, in September.
Washington also withdrew Colombia’s certification of its anti-drug fight, an essential part of the close military collaboration between the two countries for decades. Petro, in turn, has been aggressive with Trump since the beginning of the Republican’s second term, in January 2025, when he warned that he would make a dramatic turnaround in United States foreign policy towards Latin America.
Trump revived expressions such as “the US backyard” to refer to Latin America and the Caribbean, and the naval deployment in the Caribbean, as well as attacks on alleged drug trafficking boats, increased tension between the two countries. In 48 hours, Petro went from being a leader who should “watch his own ass”, in the recent expression used by Trump, to proposing joint military measures and mediating with Venezuela to reduce tension.
Washington and Bogotá would study “joint actions” to combat the National Liberation Army (ELN) guerrillas, after the telephone call, according to Interior Minister Armando Benedetti. The American capture of now-deposed Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro was met with alarm by Petro. This same Friday, the Colombian president asked the interim Venezuelan president, Delcy Rodríguez, to fight drug trafficking “together”.
*With information from AFP
