Two days after the United States made the decision to conditionally decertify Colombia in the fight against drugs, and after several statements in which the Colombian government questioned the measure, claiming that it is a purely political decision, President Gustavo Petro spoke out this Wednesday during a presidential address.
The president called the United States' decision an"injustice and a profound insult to the country." He also said the Trump administration's decision is "an insult" to his life.
“Colombia's sovereignty is not surrendered. The liberals and conservatives who signed a statement today surrendered to that sovereignty when they sold out Panama. (...) The political power that resides next to you in Miami comes from a strong alliance between drug traffickers and Colombian politicians,” he said, referring to the statement in which 11 political parties criticized Petro's stance following the decertification.
He then accused the United States government of lying and of not reviewing the figures provided by his administration before making a decision. “On the other hand, they did look at an extreme right-wing ideological alliance from Miami, Colombia, and they prefer that ideology to the truth,” he said.
He then went on to provide figures on the tons of cocaine seized, a strategy he said this government will continue to implement. The president noted that in 2024, seizures reached 889.2 tons, compared to 669.3 tons during the third year of the Duque administration.
"I gave the unequivocal order to seize everything that crosses without threatening any country in the world," he said, and then asked Trump"not to threaten countries," in clear reference to the operations the U.S. government is carrying out in Caribbean waters against drugs originating in Venezuela.
The president also presented forced eradication figures compared to data from the United Nations Integrated Illicit Crop Monitoring System and focused on the specific case of 2020 and 2021, when coca crops grew from 142,000 to 204,000 hectares, despite the fact that 130,000 hectares were forcibly eradicated.
It's worth mentioning that coca crop eradication figures show a sharp decline over the past five years, according to data from the Ministry of Defense. While more than 130,147 hectares were eliminated in 2020, the figure dropped to 20,325 in 2023, and to just 9,403 in 2024. As of July 2025, the official report records 3,636 hectares eradicated, although industry sources claim that as of August, the figure is around 5,000.
"When my administration came to power, crops grew by 9 percent, and I didn't force eradication. I'm reducing the growth in hectares to almost zero. I'm demonstrating that another method is effective," he stated.
He then referred to the deaths that occurred between 2011 and 2025 in forced eradication operations. According to the data provided, the highest number was recorded in 2020, with 20 cases, and the lowest in 2023, with zero. “This year there have been 13 deaths due to agreeing to the request to begin forced eradication, which is a mistake and I will not do it again,” he added.
In this regard, he harshly criticized this and other US governments, whom he blamed for having done nothing to curb consumption."That's why today you have 3,000 deaths from cocaine overdoses and 100,000 deaths from fentanyl, which hopefully no Colombian consumes. This shows that your entire 50-year anti-drug policy has failed," he said.
He spoke about the brake on extraditions
Petro's intervention came just hours after the U.S. chargé d'affaires in Colombia, John McNamara, asked the Colombian government to reinstate the extraditions of"all narcoterrorists without conditions" and reduce coca crops—Colombia currently has 253,000 hectares planted—as a way to reverse the decision. In response, the president responded in X that he"does not obey" orders from "foreign governments."
McNamara refers to the cases of Geovany Andrés Rojas, alias Araña, head of the Border Commandos; Gabriel Yepes Mejía, alias HH, leader of the Southern Comuneros; and Willinton Henao, alias Mocho Olmedo, second-in-command of the 33rd Front of the FARC dissidents, whose extraditions were halted by the government as they were in the midst of peace negotiations.
"There are already 400 people extradited to the United States; I'm not extraditing three because they're in the negotiation process, and Colombian law allows me to suspend them while they make peace. And if they don't make peace, they'll leave."
According to a December 2024 report by the Ministry of Justice, between August 2022 and October 2024, 488 extradition requests had been approved and executed, 332 of which came from the United States.
‘Don’t threaten me, and I’ll wait for you here if you want.’
At the end of his speech, he called on Europe and the United States to start a war against drug trafficking."Change, don't threaten me, and I'll be here waiting for you if you want," he said.
Then, in a clear reference to the bombings of alleged drug boats transporting cocaine from Venezuela to the United States, he warned that he does not accept"interventions or assassinations."
And he added: "I accept intelligence. Come here and speak with intelligence, and we will welcome you. Stop being fooled by Colombia's political mafias."
