Trump calls Colombia’s Petro an “illegal drug trafficker” and cuts off US aid to the country

PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — President Donald Trump said Sunday he will cut U.S. funding to Colombia because the country’s leader is “doing nothing to stop” drug production, the latest sign of friction between Washington and one of its closest allies in Latin America.

In a social media post, Trump referred to Colombian President Gustavo Petro as an “illegal drug dealer” who was “low-rated and very unpopular.” He warned that Petro had better “shut down” the drug operations “or the United States will shut them down for him, and that won’t go over well.” Defending Petro and the country’s commitment to the fight against drugs, Colombian Defense Minister Pedro Sanchez said: “If there is a country that has used all its capabilities and also lost men and women in the fight against drug trafficking… it is Colombia.”

Read more: US revokes Colombian President Petro’s visa after he urged US soldiers to disobey Trump

Trump, while at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, wrote on his Truth Social platform that Petro “aggressively encourages massive drug production, in fields large and small” throughout Colombia, which the Republican president initially misspelled as Colombia before deleting his post and replacing it with the correct spelling of the country. “Petro is doing nothing to stop it, despite massive payments and subsidies from the United States that are nothing more than a long-term scam for America,” Trump said.

“As of today, these payments or any other form of payment or benefits will not be sent to Colombia,” Trump said. He also said that Pietro had a “fresh mouth for America.”

Hours later, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced the latest U.S. strike in the waters off South America, this time against a ship he said was linked to a Colombian rebel group — the National Liberation Army, or ELN — and was carrying “large quantities of drugs,” but he did not say how U.S. intelligence agencies knew that. He said on social media that three men on board the plane were killed in Friday’s attack. A short video clip he attached showed a boat engulfed in flames after an explosion. The State Department designated the group as a foreign terrorist organization in 1997.

Earlier on Sunday, Petro accused the US government of the assassination and demanded answers after Thursday’s US strike in Caribbean waters. The United States said on Saturday that it would return to Colombia and Ecuador survivors of this attack, the sixth since early September. With Hegseth’s announcement, at least 32 people had been killed in attacks that the United States said targeted alleged drug traffickers.

There was no immediate reaction from the National Liberation Army, with which Petro suspended peace talks in January after a violent incursion on the border with Venezuela. The group has denied involvement in drug trafficking, but Colombian authorities regularly announce the dismantling of cocaine laboratories and the seizure of drugs believed to be owned by the rebels.

In September, the Trump administration accused Colombia of failing to cooperate in the drug war, even though Washington at the time issued a sanctions waiver that would have resulted in aid cuts. Colombia is the world’s largest exporter of cocaine, and cultivation of the vital component of the coca leaf reached an all-time high last year, according to the United Nations.

Most recently, the State Department said it would revoke Petro’s visa while he was in New York to attend the United Nations General Assembly due to his participation in a protest in which he called on American soldiers to stop following Trump’s orders. “I ask all soldiers of the United States Army not to point their rifles against humanity” and “disobey Trump’s orders,” Petro said.

Petro said a Colombian man was killed in a raid on September 16, and identified him as Alejandro Carranza, a fisherman from the coastal town of Santa Marta. He said Carranza had nothing to do with drug trafficking and that his boat was broken down when he was hit.

“US government officials committed murder and violated our sovereignty in territorial waters,” Petro wrote on X. “The Colombian boat was veering off course and was carrying a distress signal, with one of its engines running. We are awaiting clarifications from the US government.”

Petro said he informed the Attorney General’s Office and asked it to take immediate action to initiate legal proceedings at the international level and in US courts. He continued to post a series of messages early Sunday about the murder.

“The United States invaded our national territory, launched a missile to kill a humble fisherman, and destroyed his family and children,” Petro wrote. “This is Bolivar’s homeland, and they are killing his children with bombs.”

Meanwhile, Noticias Caracol, a Colombian news program, reported that the man injured in the latest strike was taken to hospital after being repatriated and remains in serious condition.

It quoted Colombian Interior Minister Armando Benedetti as saying that the Colombian “will be tried, and he will be received – pardon the harsh expression – as a criminal, because it is known so far that he was carrying a boat full of cocaine, which in our country is a crime, and although he was in international waters, his return to his homeland will be as if he were being tried in the United States.”

Petro said the man was on board a “drug submarine.”

The Ecuadorian Interior Ministry confirmed in a statement sent to The Associated Press on Sunday that the United States had returned an Ecuadorian man injured in the latest strike. Officials identified him as Andres Fernando Tuvino Chela, and said a doctor found him in good health.

The Ministry indicated that two public prosecutors met with Tovino Chela and decided that he had not committed any crimes within the country’s borders and that there was no evidence to the contrary.

Cotto reported from San Juan, Puerto Rico. Associated Press writer Astrid Suarez in Bogotá, Colombia, contributed to this report.