The US President and Colombia's president have escalated the volume in their verbal conflict, increasing tensions in their relations following American military units targeted Venezuela with the aim of deposing Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro from office.
"He operates drug factories and cocaine factories and is not going to be doing it very long," Trump added.
Rising Rhetoric and Accusations
Speaking to the press on Sunday, the American leader suggested analogous use of force towards the South American nation, asserting the nation is also "very ill" and “run by a sick man who enjoys creating the drug and selling it to the US."
While Colombia stands as the globe's biggest source of the narcotic, authorities have found no indication that President Gustavo Petro, who was elected in 2022, is personally involved in the trade.
A Frayed Relationship
Colombia for decades served as a key ally of the US in the campaign combating drug cartels and received bipartisan support from American politicians, but relations have deteriorated significantly after Trump was elected.
Its narcotics trade is mainly overseen by illegal armed groups including one major cartel, the ELN guerrilla group and dissident factions of the demobilized Farc, most of its former fighters laid down arms subsequent to a 2016 peace deal.
Colombia's Defiant Answer
When asked if armed intervention comparable to Venezuela was on the cards against his country, Trump replied: "It sounds good from my perspective."
Petro, a former leftist guerrilla who demobilised in the 1990s, rejected these allegations. "I am no an illegitimate leader and certainly not a drug trafficker," he declared.
"He comments uninformed. Stop slandering me," he wrote in a message.
"Should American forces attack peasants, they will transform into numerous insurgents in the mountains. If they capture me, whom many of the population holds in high esteem, they will release the powerful force of the nation," Petro warned.
From Fighter to Statesman
Petro spent some years as a young man as a member with the radical M-19 armed organization but is not believed to have ever engaged in fighting. After demobilizing, he participated in creating a new constitution over three decades ago subsequently becoming a respected lawmaker. He held the office of mayor of the Colombian capital before being elected president.
"I swore to abstain from using a weapon again ... but in defense of my country I will take up arms again," he affirmed.
Heightened Measures along with Cross-Political Opposition
The Colombian defence minister reported that Petro's personal security had received additional support.
Several members of Colombia’s conservative opposition have sided with the US president, but voices from all sides of Colombian politics have rejected the threats of a US attack targeting Colombia.
Diplomatic and Financial Pressure
American authorities withdrew his travel authorization subsequent to he called on American soldiers to ignore any illegal orders. Months later, authorities imposed economic restrictions on Petro, his wife and various close collaborators.
Concurrently as the US increased its troop levels near Venezuela and bombing vessels thought to carry drugs to pressure Venezuela’s Maduro, the US executed operations on boats off the Pacific coast adjacent to Colombia.
