Colombian President Gustavo Petro has brazenly defied Donald Trump for months. Now the 2 strong-willed leaders are set to satisfy on the White Home on Tuesday.
ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS,RAUL ARBOLEDA/AFP through Getty Photos
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ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS,RAUL ARBOLEDA/AFP through Getty Photos
BOGOTÁ, Colombia — President Trump on Tuesday will welcome to the White Home certainly one of his most strident critics: Colombian President Gustavo Petro.
Whereas many different world leaders have flattered or bowed right down to Trump, Petro has gone out of his option to defy the American president. The Colombian chief has lambasted Trump on every part from his deadly strikes on alleged drug boats within the Caribbean Sea and Pacific, to his help for Israel’s invasion of Gaza.
For his half, Trump has accused his Colombian counterpart of flooding the U.S. with cocaine and at one level hinted that he might be focused by the U.S. navy.
Because of this, some analysts count on fireworks between the 2 strong-willed leaders. Writing in El Tiempo, Colombia’s most influential newspaper, columnist Juan Lozano declared: “I am very worried for our country.”
Trump and Petro make for an odd couple. Trump began out as an actual property tycoon whereas Petro received his begin preaching revolution as a part of a left-wing guerrilla group earlier than he disarmed and jumped into Colombian politics.
Their first conflict got here shortly after Trump was sworn in for his second time period in January 2025 when Petro refused to simply accept U.S. navy flights bringing undocumented immigrants again to Colombia. Trump responded by threatening a devastating commerce conflict with Colombia, and Petro was compelled to retreat.
Trump then mercilessly mocked Petro, telling an viewers: “Remember, Colombia said: ‘We will not take them back!’ And within about 13 minutes, I think, (Colombia said) ‘We would love to take them back.'”
In his most provocative transfer Petro, who was attending the U.N. Basic Meeting final September, took to the streets of New York with a bullhorn to publicly urge American troopers to disobey Trump. That prompted Washington to revoke Petro’s U.S. visa and to put monetary sanctions on him, his spouse, and his inside minister.
“Petro is trying to rally the world to oppose Donald Trump, or at least to resist him. I think a lot of people find that inspiring,” stated Sergio Guzmán, director of the Bogotá consulting agency Colombia Threat Evaluation. “But his actions are also hurting the people in this country.”
Certainly, Trump has suspended immigrant visas for Colombians, slapped increased tariffs on Colombian exports to the U.S. and threatened to ship in U.S. troops to destroy the nation’s drug trafficking organizations.
Cocaine manufacturing in Colombia hit a document excessive at about 3,000 tons in 2024, based on the U.N. Workplace on Medication and Crime. That is greater than double the determine for 2021, the 12 months earlier than Petro was sworn in as president. Trump has even gone as far as to label Petro, with out proof, as a “drug leader.”
Following the U.S. raid final month that captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and introduced him to New York to face drug fees, Trump instructed to reporters aboard Air Power One which Petro may meet the same destiny.
However not like Venezuela, Colombia has been for many years Washington’s closest ally in Latin America and a key commerce accomplice. It’s typically portrayed as a U.S. overseas coverage success story given that vast sums of American assist helped convey Colombia again from the brink within the Nineteen Nineties and early 2000s when the nation was underneath siege from guerrilla teams and cocaine kingpins.
“Both on the Republican and on the Democratic side, there is an understanding that Colombia worked out well and that this is not a partner that you want to alienate,” Guzmán stated.
Lastly, after a lot backdoor diplomacy, Petro introduced in a speech final month that for the primary time ever, he had spoken with President Trump. Their cellphone dialog lasted almost an hour, with Trump later commenting that it was “a great honor” to talk with Petro.
“It’s hard to say how hunky dory the relationship is going to remain but there is this détente right now because the two men had a chance to talk to each other,” stated Adam Isacson of the Washington Workplace on Latin America, a analysis and advocacy group. They’re “two populist leaders who are outspoken, who tweet 50 times a day. They are kind of similar personalities,”
Trump is anticipated to press Petro for extra cooperation on the drug conflict and on stopping unlawful immigration. Petro might press for commerce advantages in addition to for the elimination of private sanctions towards him.
But when Trump and Petro get off on the fallacious foot, their assembly may resemble final 12 months’s notorious Oval Workplace dust-up between Trump and Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Both approach, they will not should cope with one another for much longer. Petro will depart workplace in August when his four-year time period involves an finish.
