Trump: invites Petro to a meeting after military threats against Colombia, saying, “I appreciated his call and tone”
Trump: At a time when tensions between the US and numerous Latin American nations are rising, US President Donald Trump and Colombian President Gustavo Petro spoke over the phone for the first time since a recent verbal spat. The conversation happened a few days after Trump said the Colombian leader was “sick” and engaged in cocaine trafficking.
According to Trump, the two leaders decided to have a face-to-face meeting in the future after discussing counter-narcotics policies and other points of contention. In a post on his social media account, TruthSocial, he verified the call.Trump tweeted on Wednesday, “It was a great honor to speak with the President of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, who called to explain the situation of drugs and other disagreements that we had.”I’m grateful for his call and his tone, and I hope to see him soon,” he said.
Separately, the Colombian government acknowledged that Petro spoke with Trump over the phone for 35 minutes, calling it “a good and positive call,” as reported by The Hill.
Trump warned many nations in the area about potential US engagement after recent US attacks on Venezuela escalated tensions, which prompted the outreach. Trump called Petro a “sick man who likes making cocaine and selling it to the United States, and he’s not going to be doing it very long,” according to The Hill, and Colombia was one of the countries cited.
When NewsNation’s Libbey Dean asked Trump whether he planned to begin a military operation against Colombia, he said, “It sounds good to me.” This was just one example of the hyperbole that continued.
The Colombian president has been the focus of Trump’s threats and comments in the past. He cautioned Petro last month to “better watch his a.”
In light of this, Petro urged Colombians to protect “national sovereignty” and cautioned against US involvement in the wake of Saturday’s attacks.According to The City Paper Bogota, Petro said that “thousands of guerrillas will return to the mountains if you bomb peasants.” “And if you arrest the president whom a good part of my people want and respect, you will unleash the popular jaguar.”
Petro authorized the deployment of 30,000 Colombian troops to the nation’s border with Venezuela on Sunday as tensions increased.
Other nations in the area, such as Mexico and Cuba, have also received threats from Trump. According to The Hill, he has said that Cuba’s regime is “ready to fall” without Venezuela and threatened to deploy US troops to target cartel leaders in Mexico.