US President Donald Trump has called Colombian President Gustavo Petro an “illegal drug lord” and announced the cessation of payments to South America. This is reported by Reuters.
“President Gustavo Petro of Colombia is an illegal drug lord who actively encourages the mass production of drugs on large and small plantations throughout Colombia. The purpose of this production is to sell huge amounts of drugs to the United States, causing death, destruction and chaos”, – Trump said.
Colombia reacted sharply to Trump’s statements. The country’s Foreign Ministry called these statements offensive and a direct threat to sovereignty. The statement said that the accusations by the US president are an “extremely serious act that undermines the dignity of the Colombian president.”
Last month, the US revoked Pedro’s visa after he participated in a pro-Palestinian demonstration in New York, where he called on the US military not to follow Trump’s orders.
At the same time, Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth noted that the US military destroyed the ship and eliminated three people “in the area of responsibility of the US Southern Command, which includes the Caribbean region.” According to him, the ship was associated with the National Liberation Army and was involved in illegal drug trafficking, but he did not provide evidence of this.
The strikes by the US military on ships in the Caribbean Sea have caused a wave of indignation in Colombia. Human rights organizations and lawyers, including Amnesty International, have characterized these actions as “murder on the high seas”.
Commenting on the latest attack, Petro emphasized that the ship belonged to a “modest family”, not to militants, and addressed Trump on social media:
“Mr. Trump, Colombia has never been rude to the United States, but you are rude and ignorant about Colombia. I am not a businessman, and even less so a drug trafficker. There is no greed in my heart.
Recall that in September, Trump included Colombia, Afghanistan, Bolivia, Myanmar, and Venezuela on the list of countries that, according to the US, have “demonstratively failed” to fulfill their counternarcotics commitments over the past year.
