Colombian President Gustavo Petro on Sunday pushed back after President Donald Trump referred to him as a “drug leader,” saying his dispute is with Trump personally and not with the American people. Petro defended Colombia’s record and rejected the label, calling the remarks ignorant and disrespectful.
In a series of tweets, Petro guaranteed that he has “respect for the history, culture, and people of the U.S.” and declared that Colombians “do not view them as enemies.” He asserted that Trump “does not get” the idea of fighting humanity, pointing to Americans who fought and died in Europe in past wars.
Petro also denied Trump’s accusation of having links to drug trafficking. “I am neither a businessman nor a drug trafficker,” he said, affirming that “there is no greed in my heart.” He described mafias as the extreme expression of greed and said his politics are about the defense of life and the common good.
Other than that, Petro criticized an American interdiction in the Caribbean recently that Washington blamed on Colombia’s ELN guerrillas. He said the vessel was not theirs and that they killed one of its crew members, a fisherman from Santa Marta. He urged U.S. authorities to clarify the incident.
Trump recently publicly faulted Petro for encouraging narcotic production and threatened to reduce U.S. assistance to Colombia. Petro responded that the U.S. president had been “misled by the groups and advisers around him.” In September, the United States removed Colombia from its list of fully certified partners in anti-narcotics but said assistance would proceed in the U.S. interest, according to earlier U.S. statements.
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