Colombia warns it’s ‘on the brink of war’ with US as President hits back at Donald Trump
Colombia has hit back at Donald Trump after the US President said military action in the South American country was possible under the pretext of tackling drug smuggling. Colombian president Gustavo Petro warned Mr Trump that he risked “waking the jaguar” with his comments, which were made during a cabinet meeting on Tuesday. The US leader said military strikes on land inside Venezuela, which he suspects of producing illegal narcotics for shipment to the US, would “start very soon” and named Colombia as another potential target in his “war on drugs”.
Mr Petro responded to the news on social media, writing: “To threaten our sovereignty is to declare war; do not damage two centuries of diplomatic relations.” The Colombian leader also invited his US counterpart to witness the country’s destruction of drug labs in person. “Come to Colombia, Mr. Trump, I invite you, so that you can participate in the destruction of the 9 laboratories we do daily to prevent cocaine from reaching the US,” he said.
The Colombian Foreign Ministry also issued a statement in reponse to Mr Trump’s comments, describing them as a “threat of external aggression that violates the dignity [and] integrity of the Colombian people”.
When asked if military action would be limited to Venezuela on Tuesday, the US President said: “I hear Colombia, the country of Colombia, is making cocaine. They have cocaine manufacturing plants, ok? And they sell us their cocaine.
“We appreciate that very much. But yeah, anybody that’s doing that and selling it into our country is subject to attack.”
Mr Trump has previously called the Colombian leader an “illegal drug dealer” and threatened to withdraw US financial aid alongside imposing tariffs on him and his family in October.
The US leader also recently ratcheted up tensions with Venezuela, declaring the country’s airspace to be closed last month amid a campaign of strikes in the Caribbean Sea and east Pacific Ocean on small boats accused of ferrying drugs.
The US President’s administration has also deployed almost 15,000 naval troops to the country’s Caribbean border since August, with more than 80 people thought to have died from the military action.
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