Colombia – The Colombian President, Gustavo Petro, has declared that he is prepared to personally take up arms to defend his nation’s sovereignty following a series of escalatory threats from United States President Donald Trump. Speaking in the wake of the American military operation that saw the capture and removal of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, Petro described the prospect of a similar intervention in Colombia as an act of “naked imperialism.”
President Trump, speaking from Air Force One, suggested that “Operation Colombia” was a viable option to combat the flow of illicit narcotics into the United States. He further disparaged the Colombian leader, stating that Petro was “not going to be doing it very long” and warned him. The remarks have sparked a diplomatic firestorm, with Petro asserting that any attempt by US forces to violate Colombian soil would be met with armed resistance from the state and its people.
The tension marks a historic nadir in the relationship between the two long-standing allies. While Washington frames the potential intervention as a necessary extension of its “war on drugs,” Bogotá maintains that such actions constitute a criminal breach of international law and a direct assault on democratic self-determination in Latin America.
