Colombian President Fires Back After Trump Threat

President Trump's talk of using US troops against Colombia has triggered a backlash from Bogota and exposed a split between the country's political and military leadership. Colombian President Gustavo Petro on Monday blasted Trump's suggestion that American forces in the Caribbean could be deployed against his country and other nations, and Trump's allegation that Petro is tied to cocaine production. Petro rejected Trump's accusations and warned that if the US tried to detain a Colombian president "whom much of my people want and respect, you will unleash the people's jaguar," the New York Times reports.

• In a post on X, he said he had ordered that any security commander who "prefers the US flag over the Colombian flag" would be immediately removed and urged Colombians to defend the presidency against any "illegitimate violent act."

Petro, a former guerrilla fighter, said, "I swore not to touch a weapon again ... but for the homeland I will take up arms again," Euronews reports. His remarks came two days after US forces seized Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro and brought him to New York to face federal drug-trafficking and related charges. Asked aboard Air Force One on Sunday whether a similar operation could target Colombia, Trump replied, "It sounds good to me," per the Times. The comments land on an already tense relationship: Petro has blocked deportation flights from the US, encouraged American soldiers to reject certain orders, and accused Washington of "murder" over boat strikes in the eastern Pacific.

Colombia's defense minister, Pedro Sánchez, struck a different tone. In an interview with the Times, he avoided direct criticism of Trump and stressed that security cooperation with Washington remains "very close." He said no US official had raised the idea of a military move against Colombia in recent talks and that intelligence sharing with US agencies—from the Navy and Coast Guard to the DEA and FBI—continues as usual. Sánchez said Colombia's armed forces remain focused on safeguarding "sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity," and noted that more than 30,000 Colombian troops are now deployed along the Venezuelan border to guard against instability, migration surges, or cartel violence in the wake of Maduro's ouster.