“Do not threaten our sovereignty, because you will awaken the jaguar,” wrote Gustavo Petro, the leftist president of Colombia, on Tuesday afternoon in response to statements made by US President Donald Trump. Minutes earlier, the American president had specifically mentioned Colombia among the countries he might attack to curb drug trafficking. “I hear that Colombia produces cocaine. They have cocaine manufacturing plants and then they sell it to us [...]. Anyone who does that and sells it in our country is open to attack,” the Republican declared on Tuesday in a conversation with the press, after concluding his last Cabinet meeting of 2025. “Attacking our sovereignty is declaring war; do not damage two centuries of diplomatic relations,” the Colombian president responded on Twitter, in an exchange that marks a new point of high tension in an increasingly deteriorating bilateral relationship.
Trump's offensive in the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean, where the world's leading cocaine producer has coastlines, has already resulted in some 80 deaths. Although Operation Southern Spear has ceased its military attacks against boats accused of transporting legal drugs, the Trump administration has said this is due to its success, and has indicated that this kind of intensified war on drugs will now enter a new phase."We'll start with the ground attacks. We'll take out those sons of bitches," he said, in a threat that extended to the country governed by Petro and that demonstrates the level of interventionism that, at least in his rhetoric and specifically toward Latin America, a president who in his first term was characterized by isolationism has begun to employ.
And he does so not only against a dictatorial regime like Venezuela's, but even against a democracy like Colombia's. This is something that Petro, proud to be what he calls the first left-wing president elected by his compatriots, sees as a major affront, one that dwarfs the string of previous clashes between the continental superpower and the leader of the country that for decades was its greatest ally in South America.
The background is not insignificant. The initial clash over Petro's refusal to receive a plane carrying chained migrants deported by Trump, which escalated into a declaration of trade war that was resolved in hours thanks to Colombian concessions, was merely a prelude. After a few months of relative calm—if one can describe a US call for consultations as such—during which the Republican focused on his tariff policy or on seeking peace in Gaza or Ukraine, the issue of drugs reignited tensions in September, when the US government denied Colombia certification in the fight against drugs for the first time in three decades.
The decision was not merely a sign of displeasure, but a direct criticism of the Colombian president: “Colombia’s failure to meet its drug control obligations over the past year is due exclusively to your political leadership,” reads the White House memo. “I didn’t foresee that political power in the US would fall into the hands of friends of politicians allied with paramilitaries,” Petro responded later, in a harsh remark that, while rhetorical, had little practical effect.
The clashes, however, have moved to more practical matters. In another display of rhetoric, just 11 days after the decertification, Petro took advantage of his visit to New York for the UN General Assembly to participate in a street rally against the war in Gaza. He took the floor and asked American soldiers to disobey Trump on any order to attack the Palestinians, and this earned him a decisive action: the United States government revoked his visa. Petro said he didn't need the document, but the situation didn't end there.
In mid-October, Trump labeled him a “drug kingpin who promotes mass drug production,” and his administration announced the end of payments and aid to Colombia, raising the specter of new tariffs. Petro was undeterred. “I will not concede, I will demand. Colombia has already conceded everything; it doesn't have to concede any more,” he said in an interview with journalist Daniel Coronell. “We have words, crowds, and a people ready to fight,” he affirmed, in another of his rhetorical responses to Trump's measures.
Then came a photo of a White House meeting showing a report with an image of President Gustavo Petro in a prison uniform, which led to a brief diplomatic clash, quickly resolved, and Petro's criticism of Trump's proclamation to close Venezuelan airspace. The clash, as the American intensified the psychological warfare against Nicolás Maduro's regime, only worsened. Trump's threat of attacks in Colombia, and Petro's response, escalated the verbal conflict to the point of belligerent insinuations.
Nothing suggests this is a genuine consideration. The armed forces and police of the two countries have decades of collaboration, primarily at technical and operational levels rather than political ones; the United States benefits from Colombia's fight against drugs; and Colombia considers the United States its main trading partner. But the two leaders reinforce their rhetoric by criticizing each other, and thus benefit from the friction. However, the asymmetry is clear. Petro is marginal in the eyes of the American president, who, nevertheless, has taken concrete measures and could take more. The Colombian president, for his part, speaks during the height of the election season about a figure known to all his compatriots, and who has a negative image according to local polls. The risk is that, in doing so, he is toying with a Trump who has shown no fear of making decisions that could harm Colombia.
