(Adnkronos) – Colombia announces it has recalled its ambassador to the United States, Daniel García-Peña, for consultations, after Donald Trump attacked President Gustavo Petro, accusing him of being “a drug trafficking leader,” and suspended aid to the Latin American country. Foreign Minister Rosa Villavicencio specified that the ambassador “is already in Bogota” and that “in the coming hours,” the Colombian government will announce further decisions.
Yesterday, Trump called Petro “a leader of illegal drug trafficking” who “encourages massive drug production” throughout Colombia. Drug trafficking “has become by far the biggest business in Colombia, and Petro does nothing to stop it, despite large-scale payments and subsidies from the United States which are nothing but a long-term scam against America,” Trump continued on Truth Social, emphasizing the halt “from today of these payments, or any other form of subsidies to Colombia.”
Then, speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One, Trump had doubled down, stating that Colombia is “a drug-producing machine” with a “crazy” president, and anticipated that today he would announce new tariffs for Bogota.
Trump’s attack came after Petro, the first leftist president in Colombia’s history, had in recent weeks criticized and attacked raids conducted by the Trump administration against what they call drug traffickers’ boats off the coast of Venezuela. Petro, in particular, accused the US of “murder” for having killed a Colombian fisherman “with no connection to drug trafficking” during one of Trump’s raids, in which at least 27 people have been killed since September. “The Colombian boat was adrift and had sent an SOS due to an engine problem; we expect explanations from the US government,” Petro said.