The Colombian president suggested that U.S. land in the southwest should be up for negotiation after Trump accused Venezuela of stealing U.S. land and assets.
President Donald Trump issued a fresh warning that Colombian President Gustavo Petro must curb Colombia’s cocaine production, as U.S. forces ratchet up pressure against neighboring Venezuela over drug trafficking.
During a press conference to announce a new U.S. warship program and broader shipbuilding efforts, Trump said Petro “has to watch, because, you know, he’s got drug factories.”
“They make cocaine in Colombia. And he’s no friend of the United States,” Trump added of his Colombian counterpart.
Petro and Trump have traded barbs in recent months, as U.S. forces have amassed in the waters around South America and have conducted numerous lethal attacks on drug boats in the region.
This past week, after Trump announced a U.S. blockade of sanctioned oil tankers sailing in and out of Venezuela and accused the South American nation of stealing U.S. land, oil, and other assets, Petro suggested that the southwest portion of the United States was invaded and stolen, and should therefore be up for negotiation.
“Let’s make a pact, and they’ll give us back what they took from us. And what they think we’ve taken from them—which we haven’t taken anything—well, let’s put it on the negotiating table through dialogue and face-to-face, not with missiles raining down on the poor,” Petro said.
Asked to respond to Petro’s comments about the Southwest being stolen, Trump said he loves the people of Colombia, but the Colombian president is a “very bad guy” and a “troublemaker.”
Trump said Petro should watch himself “because he makes cocaine, and they send it into the United States of America from Colombia.”
The U.S. president said he’s aware of at least three major cocaine production sites in Colombia.
“We know where they are. He’d better close them up fast,” Trump said.
The ongoing U.S. military build-up around South America is known as Operation Southern Spear.
By Ryan Morgan
