Former President Donald Trump has since significantly raised the stakes on this kind of rhetoric. He has repeatedly called Colombian President Gustavo Petro an “illegal drug trafficker” and branded Colombia the world’s top source for narcotics manufacturing. This escalation comes directly on the heels of Trump’s much criticized pardon of former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández. His you-had-to-be-there charm notwithstanding, Hernández was convicted of drug trafficking and corruption. The timing has turned heads and raised eyebrows. Hernández’s release comes within weeks of Trump threatening intervention against Colombia, one of the U.S.’s oldest allies in its global war on drugs.
On one of his media stops last week, Colombia was the country Trump targeted the most. He threatened that any country participating in drug cultivation would be subject to possible U.S. preemptive military action. He went on to add in very specific terms, “I understand that Colombia, the nation of Colombia, is producing cocaine. They have cocaine manufacturing plants, OK? And then they sell us their cocaine. We appreciate that very much. Yet sure, everyone who’s doing that and selling it to our country is fair game.”
Such incendiary statements by Trump have drawn a tough response by President Petro, warning to avoid stirring up an even greater conflict. Petro’s reply was a narrow and pointed warning about the hazards posed by these menaces. He warned, “To threaten our sovereignty in any way would be like declaring war. Don’t ruin two hundred years of peaceful diplomatic relations.” His remarks highlight the delicate balance of U.S.-Colombia relations, which have deteriorated significantly since those comments first made waves across the region.
The ex-president’s claims have drawn renewed attention to Washington’s policy for the region. Similarly, in a separate investigation of Hernández’s crimes, Trump blasted the investigation as “a Biden horrible witch-hunt.” Yet at the same time, he asserted that drugs cultivation has turned into “Colombia’s principal commerce.” Needless to say, his administration’s successful military intimidation efforts in Venezuela haven’t fallen on the wayside. Operations, he made it very clear, would go beyond that one country.
In possibly the most alarming move of all, Trump declared Venezuela’s political situation such a threat that military strikes on land-based targets would “begin very soon.” He urged U.S. soldiers to prepare for these operations, emphasizing the ease with which such actions could be carried out: “We know the routes they take. We know everything about them. We know where they live. And we want to map out where the bad ones are too, and we’re going to start doing that very soon as well.”
If the diplomatic picture wasn’t complicated enough, Trump’s revocation of Petro’s visa adds a serious complication. This move reflects a larger deterioration in relations between the two countries characterized by inflammatory rhetoric and warlike posturing. The former president’s approach is full of shades of past U.S. interventions in Latin America. This last point especially has set off alarm bells about a potential reversion to similar strategies we haven’t seen since the 1989 invasion of Panama.
Petro has called for more multilateral, collective strategies in the fight against drug trafficking, framing himself as willing to openly discuss and cooperate. He remarked, “Come with me, and I’ll show you how they are destroyed, one lab every 40 minutes,” offering insight into his administration’s efforts to combat narcotics production through local and international partnerships.
Trump’s remarks come at a time when many observers are questioning the effectiveness of aggressive military tactics in addressing drug-related issues. Critics say that building diplomatic relations and encouraging inter-governmental cooperation might be more effective in the long term than threats of armed response.