Colombian President Gustavo Petro suggested getting “rid” of President Donald Trump amid the U.S. president’s crackdown on drug cartels.
In an interview with Univision, Petro made the remark while responding to a question about Trump’s decision to slash U.S. subsidies to Colombia and tighten tariffs following a series of U.S. military strikes on alleged drug smuggling vessels in the Caribbean.
“Humanity has a first off-ramp — it is to choose to change Trump in various ways,” Petro said, according to a translation, the New York Post reported Tuesday.
“The easiest way may be through Trump himself. If not — get rid of Trump,” he added, snapping his fingers for emphasis.
Trump last week suspended hundreds of millions of dollars in U.S. aid to Colombia, calling Petro “a very unpopular leader, with a fresh mouth toward America” and “an illegal drug leader strongly encouraging the massive production of drugs.”
The immediate spark for the dispute was a Sept. 15 U.S. strike on what Washington described as a Venezuelan narco-trafficking boat. Petro, however, claimed the vessel was Colombian and used for fishing.
“U.S. government officials have committed a murder and violated our sovereignty,” he wrote on X. “The Colombian boat was adrift and had its distress signal up due to an engine failure.”
Pentagon officials have since confirmed at least seven such strikes in the region, killing more than two dozen people.
On Friday, War Secretary Pete Hegseth said U.S. forces destroyed a vessel linked to Colombia’s National Liberation Army (ELN), a leftist rebel group.
Petro accused the U.S. of “murder” and “an illegal intervention.”
Trump and Vice President JD Vance defended the raids, describing them as part of a broader effort to eliminate “poison coming into our country.”
Petro responded that Washington’s antidrug campaign was a “failed strategy” responsible for “a million dead in Latin America” and meant to “control” the region while extracting cheap Venezuelan oil.
He denounced Trump as “rude and ignorant toward Colombia.”
Trump has ordered new tariffs on Colombian exports and confirmed all U.S. assistance to Bogotá would be cut off immediately.
Colombia, a long-standing U.S. ally and top recipient of American aid in South America, received roughly $230 million in 2024, down from more than $700 million in previous years.
Petro’s government called the aid freeze and strikes a “direct threat to national sovereignty.”
Defense Minister Pedro Sánchez said Colombia “has used all its capability and lost men and women fighting drug trafficking.”
Despite the war of words, Petro insisted his country would continue to prosecute any proven traffickers. But he also warned that “in republics, it is not possible to have kings,” in a clear rebuke to Trump.
“Here, the heads of kings are cut off if they come with a king’s attitude.”
AFP and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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