Colombian President Responds to Trump Threats
The warning comes in the wake of repeated threats from President Donald Trump after Saturday’s U.S. strike on Venezuela and the reported abduction of its leader, Nicolas Maduro.
Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One on Sunday, Trump accused Petro of orchestrating the cocaine trade and suggested he could also face removal. When asked about the possibility of a U.S. military operation in Colombia, Trump replied: “sounds good to me.”
Responding on X on Monday, Petro vowed to resist any aggression. “Although I have not been a military man, I know about war and clandestinity. I swore not to touch a weapon again since the 1989 Peace Pact, but for the Homeland I will reluctantly take up arms again,” he wrote.
Before his election in 2022 as Colombia’s first left-wing president, Petro was a member of the M-19 communist guerrilla group, which laid down arms in the late 1980s to enter mainstream politics.
During his presidency, Petro said he has taken measures against the country’s cocaine trade. “I stopped the growth of coca leaf crops and began a great voluntary crop substitution plan by the coca-growing peasant,” he said, emphasizing that his airstrikes against cartels require surgical precision to avoid harming children and peasants, preventing the resurgence of Colombian insurgency groups.
Following Trump’s accusations and threats of military action, Petro demanded that any military officer “who prefers the flag of the US to the flag of Colombia” step down.
After Colombia and Cuba condemned the U.S. attack on Venezuela, Trump issued a veiled warning toward the Caribbean nation, asserting that it “is ready to fall.”
Meanwhile, Moscow has denounced the U.S. “armed aggression” against Venezuela and called for the immediate release of the country’s legally elected president and his wife.
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