Tensions Flare as Trump Slams Colombia’s Anti-Drug Efforts, Petro Fires Back

Colombian President Gustavo Petro is pushing back hard after U.S. President Donald Trump accused his government of failing in the global war on drugs, and put Colombia on a not-so-flattering list alongside Venezuela and Afghanistan.

The drama unfolded Monday night when Trump, in a formal move, “decertified” Colombia, essentially labeling it a country that has “failed demonstrably” over the last year to meet its international obligations to curb drug trafficking.

Colombia joined a list that includes Bolivia, Myanmar, Venezuela, and Afghanistan. According to the U.S. State Department, “Under Petro’s misguided leadership, coca cultivation & cocaine production in Colombia has increased to historic levels.”

And while Trump still issued a waiver to keep U.S.-Colombia cooperation flowing, the message was sharp:

“Results matter – we must see progress and it must be soon!”

Petro wasn’t having it.

“The United States is decertifying us after dozens of deaths of police officers and soldiers” in the fight against cartels, Petro said during a cabinet meeting. “They decertify us after we are the ones who have seized the most cocaine in all of history, the ones who have dismantled thousands of laboratories.”

He didn’t stop there.

“What we are doing does not really have to do with the Colombian people,” he added, “Rather, it is to stop American society from getting their noses dirty from the desire to work, work, work.”

Later, in a more pointed statement directed at Washington, Petro said: “You begin with a factual lie, gentlemen of the US embassy. The growth of coca crops occurred during the government of Duque, and with forced fumigation. It is the policy of the United States that has failed.”

“For the cultivation of coca leaf to decrease, what is needed is not glyphosate dropped from small planes, but a reduction in the demand for cocaine, fundamentally in the US and Europe.”

The so-called decertification is often seen as a political slap, a formal rebuke that can lead to consequences like a cut in U.S. aid or blocking access to international development loans. But the White House does have the option to waive those penalties, as Trump did here.

The timing of the announcement also raised eyebrows. Just hours earlier, Trump had bragged about a U.S. military operation that reportedly sank a Venezuelan “drug vessel” in international waters, killing three people on board.

It’s the second such strike in recent weeks. Earlier, a U.S. attack on a high-speed boat reportedly left 11 people dead. Caracas called it an “extrajudicial killing.” Human rights experts are now questioning the legality of these lethal ops, especially when they take place far from U.S. borders and pose no clear threat to American lives.