President Donald Trump said he’s ending U.S. aid to Colombia, and called the country’s president, Gustavo Petro, an “illegal drug leader” on Truth Social Sunday. This came after Petro condemned recent U.S. military strikes on vessels in international waters.
In his post, Trump said the “massive production of drugs, in big and small fields” has become the “biggest business in Colombia, 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.”
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Responding to Trump on X, Petro said that he has been “rude and ignorant toward Colombia,” adding that he is “not a businessman, much less a drug trafficker.”
“There is no greed in my heart,” Petro said.
A 2023 report by the United Nations (UN) Office on Drugs and Crime’s stated that Colombia, Peru and Bolivia are the largest suppliers of cocaine. Colombia, according to the U.N., has the “biggest share of the coca plant.” Petro maintained, though, that his government is working to to contain the growth of the in Colombia.
US military strikes
Earlier on Sunday, Petro said U.S. government officials committed a murder and “violated our sovereignty in territorial waters” during a strike on Sept. 15. This was one of multiple strikes over the past several weeks as the Trump administration takes part in an intensified campaign against maritime drug smuggling. Boats targeted, U.S. officials said, are carrying what they called narco-terrorists.
However, Petro said a Colombian man killed in the September strike, Alejandro Carranza, was a fisherman with no ties to the drug trade.
“The Colombian boat was adrift and had its distress signal up due to an engine failure,” Petro said. “We await explanations from the U.S. government.”
Another strike was announced by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on X Sunday. Hegseth said on Oct. 17, the Department of Defense hit a vessel affiliated with Colombian rebel group Ejército de Liberación Nacional (ELN). All three men on the ship died. Hegseth said the vessel was transporting “substantial amounts of narcotics.”
However, Petro disputed this on X: “The fisherman’s boat from Santa Marta was not from the ELN; it belonged to a humble family, lovers of the sea, from which they drew their food,” he said.
Petro halted peace talks with ELN in January. The group denied drug trafficking, though The Associated Press wrote that Colombian authorities reported dismantling cocaine laboratories and seizing drugs that they believe belong to ELN.
On Saturday, meanwhile, Trump announced that two men who survived a Thursday strike in the Caribbean would be repatriated to Colombia and Ecuador. Two other crew members were killed in that strike. Colombian news outlet Noticias Caracol wrote that Colombian Interior Minister Armando Benedetti said the man, who was taken to the hospital after returning, will be “prosecuted, he will be received — forgive the harsh expression — as a criminal, because so far what is known is that he was carrying a boat full of cocaine, which in our country is a crime.”
Ecuador’s Ministry of the Interior confirmed in a statement to the AP on Sunday that the U.S. had repatriated the Ecuadorian man, who was identified as Andrés Fernando Tufiño Chila. The ministry said two prosecutors met with Tufiño Chila and decided he hadn’t committed any crimes within the country’s border.
The U.S. State Department revoked Petro’s visa in September, after the Colombian president urged American Army troops to “disobey the orders of Trump.” Also in September, Petro demanded a criminal probe into Trump and other administration officials over the U.S. strikes.
