Colombian president a ‘drug leader’, says Trump
US President Donald Trump called Colombian President Gustavo Petro an “illegal drug leader” and said the US would stop “large-scale payments and subsidies” to the South American country.
“The purpose of this drug production is to sell large quantities of the product to the United States to cause death, destruction and damage,” he said in a post on Truth Social.
Reuters could not immediately determine which payments Trump was referring to.
Colombia was once among the largest recipients of U.S. aid in the Western Hemisphere, but this year the flow of money was abruptly cut off by the shutdown of USAID, the humanitarian arm of the American government.
The Colombian embassy in Washington, DC, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The US State Department referred questions to the White House, but the question was not immediately answered.
Relations between Bogota and Washington have frayed since Trump returned to office. Last month, the US revoked Petro’s visa after he attended a pro-Palestinian demonstration in New York and called on US soldiers not to follow Trump’s orders.
Last year, Petro promised to tame coca-growing regions in Colombia with massive social and military intervention, but the strategy has yielded little success.
In September, Trump named countries including Afghanistan, Bolivia, Burma, Colombia and Venezuela among those he believes the United States has “clearly failed” to implement counternarcotics agreements over the past year.
He blamed Colombia’s political leadership for failing to meet drug control obligations. “Petro is an illegal drug leader who violently encourages the production of massive amounts of drugs,” Trump said in his post on Sunday, adding that US payments and subsidies to Colombia are a robbery.
“AS OF TODAY, THESE PAYMENTS OR ANY OTHER FORM OF PAYMENT OR PAYMENTS WILL NO LONGER BE MADE,” he wrote in capital letters.
