Colombian President Gustavo Petro strongly criticized the Trump administration\u2019s actions against Venezuela. It reignited President Donald Trump\u2019s ire against the Colombian leader.<\/b>
\nAn \u201cabhorrent\u201d violation of Latin American sovereignty. An attack committed by \u201censlavers.\u201d A \u201cspectacle of death\u201d comparable to Nazi Germany\u2019s 1937 carpet bombing of Guernica, Spain.
There is perhaps no world leader criticizing the Trump administration\u2019s attack on Venezuela as strongly as left-wing President Gustavo Petro of neighboring Colombia.
While other officials tread carefully, Petro has seized on the U.S. capture of Venezuelan President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro to escalate his spiraling war of words with President Donald Trump, who has said a U.S. military operation in Colombia \u201c sounds good to me. \u201d
On Wednesday, Petro called for Colombians to take to the streets \u201cto stand up for their nation\u2019s sovereignty in response to Trump\u2019s insults and military intervention threats.\u201d He convened emergency meetings before the United Nations and the Organization of American States. And the former leftist guerrilla even threatened to take up arms against the U.S. to defend his country.
Petro\u2019s high-stakes gambit has put Colombia, long America\u2019s staunchest regional ally, in Trump\u2019s crosshairs and his government in a bind: how to reap the political rewards of standing up to Washington just months before a presidential election without jeopardizing crucial security assistance or goading Trump into making good on his threat to invade.
That tension was on split-screen display this week as Petro lashed out at Trump while his top officials rushed to assure the U.S. that Colombia remains the pillar of its counternarcotics strategy abroad. For the past 30 years, the U.S. has worked closely with Colombia, the world\u2019s largest producer of cocaine, to arrest drug traffickers, fend off rebel groups and boost economic development.
Colombia retains leverage as the main source of intelligence Washington uses to interdict drugs in the Caribbean, experts say.
\u201cPeople are trying to tell Trump: \u2018Look, you can punish Petro to the extent possible, but you don\u2019t want to punish the country. That undermines the fight against drugs and is going to be harmful for the United States,\u2019\u201d said Michael Shifter, a Latin America expert at the Inter-American Dialogue think tank in Washington.
\u201cBut Trump is completely unpredictable,\u201d Shifter said. \u201cHe changes his mind, he\u2019s driven by his own impulses.\u201dTrump and Petro hate each other
Petro has drawn Trump\u2019s ire for months.
He has turned back U.S. military deportation flights, urged American soldiers to disobey Trump during a pro-Palestinian rally in New York, lambasted U.S. attacks on alleged drug vessels as \u201cmurder,\u201d and sparred with him over Israel\u2019s military campaign in Gaza and his administration\u2019s crackdown on immigration.
Infuriated, Trump has deployed language that he often used to describe Maduro, calling Petro a \u201clunatic\u201d and an \u201cinternational drug leader.\u201d He has revoked Petro\u2019s U.S. visa; slapped sweeping sanctions on him, his relatives and his interior minister on drug-related grounds; vowed to end all U.S. aid to Colombia; and threatened punitive tariffs on Colombian exports.
Thrilled by Maduro\u2019s ouster, Trump pushed the fight even further in recent days. He called Petro a \u201csick man who likes making cocaine and selling it to the United States\u201d and warned of a possible U.S. military operation on Colombian soil.Petro plays the fight to his advantage
Petro can\u2019t help relishing the conflict \u2014 as long as it remains only verbal. Frustrated with congressional resistance to his contentious reforms, failing to fulfill his promise of \u201ctotal peace\u201d with armed groups and facing a series of electoral tests, Petro has found in Trump the perfect foil as he fights for his legacy.
\u201cHe wants this stage where he is the clearest adversary, rhetorically or politically, to the U.S.,\u201d said Sergio Guzman, a political risk analyst based in Bogot\u00e1.
The constitution bars Petro from seeking another term in May\u2019s presidential vote but the country\u2019s first leftist president wants his coalition to retain power over the resurgent right that blames his unpopular government for rising crime. Colombia will also hold legislative elections in March.
So far, Petro\u2019s strategy of playing David to Trump\u2019s Goliath seems to be paying off.
As Trump escalated his threats against Colombia this week, even some of Petro\u2019s opponents rushed to his defense.
\u201cTrump is misinformed and misfocused; his simplistic statements are counterproductive,\u201d said An\u00edbal Gaviria, a right-wing presidential hopeful, praising his country\u2019s strong democratic institutions. \u201cColombia is not Venezuela, nor Cuba, nor Nicaragua.\u201dAlarm grows in Colombia over Trump\u2019s threats
A U.S. military operation against Petro who, unlike Maduro, was democratically elected, is unlikely, experts say.
But complicating the calculation for Colombian officials is Trump\u2019s increasingly militaristic comments about Latin America that lump Colombia in with Venezuela as a source of narcotics and immigrants in the U.S.
\u201cWhereas the Colombian institutions still maintain cooperation and have a lot to lose, Petro personally feels like that bridge has already burned,\u201d said Elizabeth Dickinson, a senior analyst at the International Crisis Group.
Recent statements from top ministers betray the rising alarm. Fears are also building that Colombia \u2014 which shares a 2,200-kilometer (1,360-mile) volatile border with Venezuela and is the biggest host of Venezuelan refugees \u2014 could get sucked into a wider regional conflagration if its neighbor descends into chaos.
As Petro fired more salvos on social media, Colombia\u2019s interior and justice ministers scrambled to put out the fire, announcing they had notified U.S. intelligence agencies the government would \u201ccontinue to coordinate and cooperate in the fight against drug trafficking based on U.S. information and technology.\u201d
In a news conference, Defense Minister Pedro S\u00e1nchez sought to reassure the public that the leaders\u2019 latest spat had done nothing to upset security cooperation critical to the Colombian military and police as they fight leftist guerrillas and drug traffickers. Washington has provided Bogot\u00e1 with roughly $14 billion in the last two decades.
\u201cToday, we have a golden opportunity to invest even more in strengthening international cooperation,\u201d S\u00e1nchez said, ticking off the government\u2019s successes in destroying thousands of cocaine labs and intercepting fentanyl shipments.
Colombia is trying to resolve the tensions with Trump diplomatically, Foreign Minister Rosa Villavicencio told reporters on Tuesday. Nonetheless, Colombia is preparing for \u201cthe possibility of aggression against our country by the United States.\u201d
\u201cWe have a highly trained, very well prepared army,\u201d she said.
Indeed, the army has long received training from the U.S.<\/p>\n