Trump calls Colombia’s Petro ‘illegal drug dealer’ and announces end to US aid

President Donald Trump has said he would slash US funding to Colombia because the country’s leader “does nothing to stop” drug production, in what is the latest sign of friction between Washington and one of its closest allies in Latin America.

In a social media post, Mr Trump referred to Colombian President Gustavo Petro as “an illegal drug dealer” who is “low-rated and very unpopular”.

He warned that Mr Petro “better close-up” drug operations “or the United States will close them up for him, and it won’t be done nicely”.

Mr Trump, while at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, wrote on his Truth Social platform that Petro is “strongly encouraging the massive production of drugs, in big and small fields” across Colombia, which the Republican president spelt as Columbia.

“Petro does nothing to stop it, despite large-scale payments and subsidies from the USA that are nothing more than a long-term rip off of America,” Mr Trump said.

“AS OF TODAY, THESE PAYMENTS, OR ANY OTHER FORM OF PAYMENT, OR SUBSIDIES, WILL NO LONGER BE MADE TO COLUMBIA,” Mr Trump said.

He also said Mr Petro had “a fresh mouth toward America”.

Earlier on Sunday, Mr Petro accused the US government of assassination and demanded answers after the latest American strike in Caribbean waters.

The US said on Saturday that it was repatriating to Colombia and Ecuador two survivors from that attack, the sixth since early September.

At least 29 people have been killed in strikes that the US has said are targeting alleged drug traffickers.

In September, the Trump administration accused Colombia of failing to co-operate in the drugs war, although at the time, Washington issued a waiver of sanctions that would have triggered aid cuts.

Colombia is the world’s largest exporter of cocaine, and the cultivation of the critical ingredient of coca leaves reached an all-time high last year, according to the United Nations.

More recently, the US state department said it would revoke Mr Petro’s visa while he was in New York for the UN General Assembly because of his participation in a protest where he called on American soldiers to stop following Mr Trump’s commands.

“I ask all the soldiers of the United States’ army, don’t point your rifles against humanity” and “disobey the orders of Trump”, Mr Petro said.

Mr Petro said a Colombian man was killed in a September 16 strike and identified him as Alejandro Carranza, a fisherman from the coastal town of Santa Marta.

He said that Mr Carranza had no ties to drug trafficking and that his boat was malfunctioning when it was hit.

“US government officials have committed murder and violated our sovereignty in territorial waters,” Mr Petro wrote on X.

“The Colombian boat was adrift and had a distress signal on, with one engine up.

“We await explanations from the US government.”

Mr Petro said that he had alerted the attorney general’s office and demanded that it act immediately to initiate legal proceedings internationally and in US courts.

He continued to post a flurry of messages into early Sunday about the killing.

“The United States has invaded our national territory, fired a missile to kill a humble fisherman, and destroyed his family, his children.”

“This is Bolivar’s homeland, and they are murdering his children with bombs,” Mr Petro wrote.

Meanwhile, Noticias Caracol, a Colombian news programme, reported that the man injured in the most recent strike was hospitalised after he was repatriated and remained in a serious condition.

It quoted Colombian interior minister Armando Benedetti as saying that the Colombian “will be prosecuted, he will be received – forgive the harsh expression – as a criminal, because so far what is known is that he was carrying a boat full of cocaine, which in our country is a crime, and despite the fact that it was in international waters, his repatriation will be as if he were being prosecuted in the United States”.

Mr Petro said the man had been aboard a “narco submarine”.

Ecuador’s ministry of the interior confirmed in a statement sent to The Associated Press on Sunday that the US had repatriated an Ecuadorian man injured in the most recent strike.

Officials identified him as Andres Fernando Tufino Chila and said a doctor found him to be in good health.

The ministry noted that two prosecutors met with Mr Tufino Chila and determined he had not committed any crimes within the country’s borders and that there was no evidence to the contrary.