After days of sharp rhetoric and military posturing, Washington and Bogotá appear to be stepping back from the brink. U.S. President Donald Trump and Colombian President Gustavo Petro spoke by phone for the first time and agreed to pursue a future White House meeting, marking a sudden diplomatic thaw after a week of escalating tensions.
Trump said on Truth Social that it was a “Great Honor” to speak with Petro, writing that the Colombian leader called to “to explain the situation of drugs and other disagreements that we have had” and that he appreciated Petro’s “call and tone.”
Petro, speaking to supporters in Bogotá, confirmed the call and said he asked Trump to restart dialogue between the two countries. It was their first direct conversation since Trump returned to the White House.
A U.S. official and the Colombian presidency both said the call lasted about an hour, which The New York Times described as unusually long for a Trump call with another head of state. No official date has been set for the proposed meeting.
Download the SAN app today to stay up-to-date with Unbiased. Straight Facts™.
Point phone camera here
Why the Trump–Petro call matters
The conversation appeared to ease a rapidly escalating crisis that began after Trump said military action against Colombia “sounds good” following the U.S. raid that captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
Unbiased. Straight Facts.TM
The U.S. State Department revoked Gustavo Petro’s visa in September and the Trump administration imposed sanctions on him in October.
In response, Petro urged Colombians to take to the streets to defend their sovereignty, Reuters reported.
In the days leading up to the call, Trump had labeled Petro “a sick man” who “likes making cocaine and selling it to the United States,” Reuters reported.
Petro, a frequent Trump critic, warned that the threat of U.S. military action was real and said he feared being “extracted” the way Maduro was, the Times reported. He expressed concern that Washington could manufacture a justification for intervention by falsely tying him to drug trafficking or to Maduro — claims Petro strongly denied.
“I live humbly off my salary,” Petro said, “even if it is a relatively high one for Colombia.”
The dispute strained a decades-long security partnership in which the United States has sent tens of billions of dollars in training and equipment to Colombia for counternarcotics efforts, even as cocaine production has continued to rise.
What officials are saying now
In his Truth Social post, Trump said arrangements were underway for a White House meeting, to be coordinated by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Colombia’s foreign minister.
Petro’s office told Reuters the call was “cordial” and “respectful,” and Colombia’s Embassy in the U.S. described it as “constructive.”
Behind the scenes, relations had already been deteriorating before the Venezuela raid. Reuters reported that the U.S. State Department revoked Petro’s visa in September after he urged American soldiers at a pro-Palestinian rally in New York to disobey Trump’s orders.
The Trump administration later imposed sanctions on Petro in October, frequently accusing his government of facilitating drug trafficking — allegations Petro has denied.
Rubio has sought to draw a line between the current political tensions and the broader relationship. He previously said the United States remains committed to its institutional partnership with Colombia and that long-standing security ties remain “unimpeded and unaffected,” even as the two presidents attempt to manage a strained personal relationship.
For now, the rhetoric has cooled. Whether the reset holds will depend on what comes next, and whether the promised meeting materializes.
