Colombian President Gustavo Petro has fired back at US President Donald Trump’s recent threats, rejecting accusations that he is involved in the drug trade and warning that any US military intervention could trigger widespread resistance.
Trump had escalated tensions following a US strike on Venezuela aimed at removing President Nicolás Maduro, calling Colombia “very sick” and accusing Petro of running cocaine operations. Speaking to reporters on Air Force One, Trump said, “He has cocaine mills and cocaine factories and is not going to be doing it very long.”
Petro, a former leftist guerrilla who demobilised in the 1990s, strongly denied the claims, posting on X: “I am not illegitimate and I am not a narco. Trump speaks without knowledge. Stop slandering me.”
He also warned of serious consequences if the US were to take action against Colombia. “If they bomb, the campesinos will become thousands of guerrillas in the mountains. And if they detain the president, which a large part of the country loves and respects, they will unleash the ‘jaguar’ of the people,” he said.
Petro, who previously belonged to the M-19 guerrilla group, later helped draft Colombia’s 1991 constitution, served as a lawmaker, and became mayor of Bogotá before being elected president. He added, “I swore not to touch a weapon again … but for the homeland I will take up arms again.”
In response to the escalating tensions, Colombian Defence Minister Pedro Sánchez announced that Petro’s security detail had been strengthened. While some right-wing opposition figures have sided with Trump, political leaders across Colombia have rejected any notion of a US attack.
US-Colombia relations have been strained in recent months, with the US revoking Petro’s visa in September after he urged American soldiers to disobey illegal orders and imposing financial sanctions on him, his wife, and key aides in October. At the same time, the US has increased its military presence in the Caribbean and carried out strikes on suspected drug boats near Venezuela and off Colombia’s Pacific coast.