An “abhorrent” violation of Latin American sovereignty. An attack committed by “enslavers.” A “spectacle of death” comparable to Nazi Germany’s 1937 carpet bombing of Guernica, Spain, AP reported.
There is perhaps no world leader criticizing the Trump administration’s attack on Venezuela as strongly as left-wing President Gustavo Petro of Colombia, historically Washington’s most important ally in the region.
For the past 30 years, the U.S. has worked closely with Colombia, the world’s largest producer of cocaine, to arrest drug traffickers, fend off rebel groups and boost economic development in rural areas.
But while other officials tread carefully, Colombia’s outspoken president has seized on the U.S. capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro to escalate his spiraling war of words with President Donald Trump, who said a U.S. military operation in Colombia “sounds good to me.”
Answering a protest call issued by Petro, thousands of Colombians gathered in public squares across the country Wednesday “to defend national sovereignty” against Trump’s military threats, chanting “Long live free and sovereign Colombia!” and waiting anxiously to hear what they expected would be Petro’s latest scathing salvo in his clash with Trump.
Instead, to everyone’s surprise, the Colombian president offered an olive branch to the man who has repeatedly called him a drug kingpin, despite a lack of evidence.
“I had one speech prepared for today, but I have to give another one,” Petro told the crowd in Colombia’s capital of Bogotá. “The first speech was quite harsh. I had to change it.”
Just minutes earlier, Petro said, he had held a friendly call with Trump, and explained that his only connection to drug trafficking was his fierce commitment to fighting against it.
“I asked (Trump) to re-establish direct communication between our governments,” Petro said. “If there is no dialogue, there will be war.”
Trump released a statement on social media, calling it a “Great Honor” to speak with Petro. He even invited his fiercest critic to the White House, revealing what he’s shown in the past to be a dramatic capacity to swiftly change tack.
“I appreciated his call and tone, and look forward to meeting him in the near future,” Trump wrote of Petro.
The sudden détente between the irascible foes revealed that, for all their differences, Petro and Trump share a willingness to side with an ideological rival if deemed to be in their best interest.
For Colombia, the U.S. remains key to the military’s fight against leftist guerrillas and drug traffickers. Washington has provided Bogotá with roughly $14 billion in the last two decades.
For the U.S., Colombia remains the cornerstone of its counternarcotics strategy abroad, providing crucial intelligence used to interdict drugs in the Caribbean.
“The Colombians are extremely effective in taking advantage of their contacts in Washington, on the Hill and elsewhere, and the private sector is mobilized,” said Michael Shifter, a Latin America expert at the Inter-American Dialogue think tank in Washington.
“People were trying to tell Trump: ‘Look, you can punish Petro to the extent possible, but you don’t want to punish the country. That undermines the fight against drugs and is going to be harmful for the United States.’”
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