[Actualizada con comunicado de la cancillería colombiana]
The Colombian president, Gustavo Petro, affirmed this Sunday that the US president, Donald Trump, “is deceived” when he considers him “a leader of drug trafficking,” as he said that what he has done throughout his career is precisely denounce the drug mafias.
«Trump is deceived by (sic) his lodges and advisors. The main enemy that drug trafficking had in Colombia was in the 21st century, which revealed its relations with the political power of Colombia. That was me. I recommend that Trump read Colombia well and determine where the drug traffickers are and where the Democrats are,” Petro wrote in X after Trump announced that he was cutting financial aid to Colombia due to its inaction in the fight against drug trafficking.
“Trying to promote peace in Colombia is not being a drug trafficker,” the president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, wrote on his X account in response to his American counterpart, Donald Trump, who described him as a “leader of illegal drug trafficking.”
According to Trump, the drug business “has become, by far, the largest business in Colombia,” and he accused him of doing nothing to stop it.
Colombia set a new record in 2024 by seizing 960 tons of cocaine and cocaine base, 14% more than the previous year, according to its official figures. However, between 2022 and 2023 the area of land dedicated to coca cultivation increased by 10%, reaching 253,000 hectares, according to a report from the Integrated Illicit Crop Monitoring System (SIMCI).
The Petro Administration has deepened its work to reduce coca cultivation by 40% and ensure that 50,000 small coca growers switch to licit crops by 2026, in a three-year strategy that was announced in 2023.
Colombian Foreign Ministry rejects “the offensive and discrediting statements” directed at Petro
The Colombian Foreign Ministry rejects “the offensive and discrediting statements” directed at Petro. This is a threat to national sovereignty by Trump, who accuses the Colombian president “without any basis,” the organization points out.
“These accusations constitute an act of the greatest gravity and go against the dignity of the president of Colombians,” emphasizes the Colombian Foreign Ministry.
The entity strongly rejected the statements of the American leader and the use of international cooperation as an instrument of interference in the internal affairs of the South American country. The statement was issued after Trump will accuse Petro of “being a leader of illegal drug trafficking” and threatened to intervene “in an unkind way” in Colombia to combat drug trafficking.
It is important to remember that on September 15, US authorities announced their decision not to ‘certify’ Colombia as a cooperating country in the fight against drug trafficking, which would have economic consequences at different levels. Then Washington granted an exemption so as not to completely affect the assistance it transferred to Bogotá.
