‘I Will Take Up Arms Again’: What Triggered Colombia’s Petro To Warn Trump | World News

New Delhi: Colombian President Gustavo Petro has hit back at Donald Trump after the US president warned him to “watch his ass” after Washington bombed Venezuela and captured President Nicolas Maduro.

Petro, a former guerrilla who laid down his weapons and became Colombia’s first Leftist president, said he was ready to fight if Trump made good on his threats. He wrote about X, according to the AFP news agency: “I swore I would never touch a gun again… but I will take up arms again for the homeland.”

Trump called Petro “a sick man who likes to make cocaine and sell it to the United States.” The US administration had been making similar accusations of narco-terrorism against Maduro, his wife and other Venezuelan leaders for years before announcing their “capture” last Saturday (January 3).

Petro defended his government’s drug-related actions, pointing to major cocaine seizures. He also noted efforts to reduce coca cultivation before and after Trump’s statements.

In another X-related post, the Colombian leader criticized US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and accused him of misrepresenting Colombia’s constitutional structure. He said that the president of the country is, by law, the Commander-in-Chief of both the army and the police.

Detailing his administration’s records, he said Colombia oversaw what he described as the world’s largest cocaine seizure, slowed the expansion of coca crops and launched a voluntary crop substitution program covering about 30,000 hectares. He said security forces were targeting major drug trafficking centers and armed groups while operating within the boundaries of humanitarian law.

Petro, whose M-19 urban guerrilla movement was disarmed under a peace agreement signed in 1989, has been locked in an escalating war of words with Trump since the Republican leader returned to the White House in January 2025.

He has emerged as a vocal critic of U.S. military action in the Caribbean, which began with the destruction of alleged drug boats, expanded to the seizure of Venezuelan oil tankers and culminated in Saturday’s raid on Caracas to arrest President Maduro.

Trump accused Petro of involvement in drug trafficking without providing evidence and imposed financial sanctions on him and his family. Washington also removed Colombia from the list of countries approved as allies in the US-led drug war.

In his long post about X, Petro said that the counter-narcotics strategy was solid and effective, while also underlining clear limits on the use of force. “If you bomb even one of these groups without sufficient intelligence, you will kill many children. If you bomb the villagers, thousands will turn into guerrillas in the mountains. And if you detain the president whom most of my people love and respect, you will release the popular jaguar,” he wrote.

The Trump administration is aligned with Colombia’s right-wing opposition, which is entering an election year and hopes to win both legislative and presidential races later this year.