Airstrikes and insults: Trump’s new Latin America crisis

MEXICO CITY — For decades, Colombia and the United States have been staunch allies; They share military intelligence, have a strong business relationship and are engaged in a multibillion-dollar fight against drug trafficking.

Everything is now at risk as the United States steps up deadly airstrikes off the coast of Colombia and the leaders of both countries launch harsh verbal attacks.

President Trump called Gustavo Petro, a former guerrilla fighter and Colombia’s first leftist president, an “illegal drug dealer.” Petro called Trump “rude” and accused the United States of murder, saying a U.S. attack on an alleged Venezuelan drug boat killed a Colombian fisherman in Colombian waters.

Petro condemned the massive buildup of US troops, warships and jets in the Caribbean, which he claimed was aimed at forcing a change of government in neighboring Venezuela.

Relations between the countries reached their lowest point in memory on Monday, as the Colombian government recalled its ambassador to the United States and Trump vowed to suspend all US aid to Colombia and impose new tariffs on imports from the South American country.

“Petro is doing nothing to stop drug trafficking,” Trump charged on the social media site, “despite large-scale payments and subsidies from the United States that are nothing but the long-term ripping off of America.”

Trump warned the Colombian leader: “You better close these killing fields immediately, or the United States will close them for him, and that’s not going to be done nicely.”

The petro maintained its record in deterring drug trafficking even as Colombian production of coca plants, the raw material for cocaine, increased. He said widespread illicit drug consumption in the United States and Europe was behind the bloody drug war in Latin America.

Meanwhile, the United States said Sunday it had blown up another boat allegedly linked to a Colombian rebel group. Petro said that the boat actually belonged to a “humble family.”

The growing binational crisis threatened to further destabilize a region already strained by U.S. military offensives. Some analysts said this threatened to embolden the drug traffickers Trump claimed to target.

“In the fight between the world’s largest drug producer and the world’s largest drug consumer, only organized crime wins,” former Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos said at a forum in Barcelona, ​​Spain. “As long as we have two presidents insulting each other on Twitter every day, [combating crime] It will be harder.”

Colombia is facing its worst security crisis in a decade, with armed groups competing to control drug trafficking, illegal gold mining and other illicit economies since militants affiliated with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) laid down their weapons in a peace deal with the Colombian government in 2016.

If the United States ends military and other aid to Colombia, the impact could be catastrophic, said Elizabeth Dickinson, a senior analyst on the Andes region at the International Crisis Group, a think tank.

Colombia’s military, long strengthened by U.S. training, weapons and other assistance, is so capable that its members are paid by the U.S. to teach counternarcotics operations in other parts of the world, he said. “If the United States is truly interested in fighting organized crime and drug trafficking, why would they alienate the only partner in the region who is capable and willing to help?”

“For many years, the U.S.-Colombia relationship has transcended personal politics because both sides understood how important it was,” Dickinson continued. “Now the wisdom of the relationship that has held it together for so long and made it so fruitful for both countries is being thrown out the window, and we are losing decades of progress.”

Relations between the countries have been thawing since January, when Trump returned to the White House for a second term.

Trump threatened tariffs after Petro refused to accept US military flights destined for deported immigrants. Petro initially promised retaliatory tariffs but backtracked and agreed to accept immigrants to avoid a trade war.

More recently, the State Department announced that Petro’s visa had been revoked after Petro condemned U.S. support for Israel at the United Nations General Assembly in New York and called on American soldiers to disobey Trump and “obey the dictates of humanity.”

The build-up of US forces in the Caribbean further strained the relationship.

The Trump administration has deployed nearly 10,000 troops and a fleet of ships and aircraft to the Caribbean; This is the largest US military buildup in the region in decades.

While the force is ostensibly aimed at stopping the drug trade, it is widely believed to be an effort to oust Venezuela’s left-leaning autocratic leader Nicolás Maduro, who critics say has plunged his country into an economic and political crisis.

Petro warned against US intervention in Venezuela in a post published on X on Monday, saying Washington was after the country’s vast oil reserves.

“The Venezuelan people do not want occupation, blockade or threats against them,” he wrote. “They do not like dictators, neither domestic nor foreign.”

Last month, the Trump administration rescinded Colombia’s approval to partner in the war on drugs; It was a move that could cost the country hundreds of millions of dollars annually, much of it for anti-drug efforts.

Petro’s spat with Trump has sparked intense debate in Colombia, which is sharply divided ahead of next year’s presidential election. (Petro is constitutionally barred from re-election.)

Petro’s supporters praised him for standing up to a global tyrant. But his critics say he is endangering Colombia’s economy. The United States is Colombia’s largest trading partner; It exported approximately 10 billion dollars to the USA in the first eight months of this year.

Petro’s provocative stance against the Trump administration contrasts with that of leftist Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, who has sought to compromise with Trump to avoid punitive tariffs on Mexican exports to the United States. But many worry that Mexico could be a military target of the Trump administration because it is the largest supplier of fentanyl and other drugs to the U.S. market.