A fiery leftist leader from South America is calling on his supporters to gather in city squares across the country to defend the country's sovereignty and denounce Donald Trump's verbal attacks. The US president accuses him of personally flooding American streets with illegal drugs and imposes sanctions against him and his wife. The threats of military action are then followed by a phone call between the two leaders.
One might think that this is a description of the rising tensions that led to the January 3 operation in Caracas, when US special forces carried out a raid aimed at arresting Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores, to face multiple criminal charges in New York.
However, a similar scenario has been unfolding in Colombia for a year, leading to an exchange of insults and threats between Trump and Colombian President Gustavo Pedro, the first leftist leader in the country's history.
“Trump is doing to Petro what he did to Maduro - directly and personally linking him to drug trafficking,” says Sandra Borda, a political analyst at the University of the Andes.
Despite the parallels, Colombia is not Venezuela, and Petro is not Maduro. While Maduro is widely believed to have stolen the election from the opposition last year, Petro’s victory in the 2022 election has never been in doubt. Maduro has been indicted in federal court in the United States, while Petro has no charges against him. The deep institutional ties between Colombia and the US military and police are unparalleled in Latin America.
However, tensions between Colombia and the US reached a peak earlier this month when Trump threatened military action against Colombia, similar to the operation in Caracas, and declared that Petro is “a sick man who likes to make cocaine and sell it to the United States.” In response, Petro, a former guerrilla, said: “I swore I would never take up arms again… but for my country I will.”
He called on his supporters to gather across the country, but just as he was about to address the crowds, a phone call was made with Trump, with whom he spoke for an hour. The conversation, which the Colombian Foreign Ministry described as a “good meeting,” seemed to calm the situation. Trump posted on the Truit Social network that he had been “honored” to speak with Petra and that he had invited the Colombian president to the White House.
“It took an almost Herculean effort by diplomats on both the Colombian and American sides to prevent a complete breakdown in relations,” said Cynthia Arnson, a lecturer at Johns Hopkins University and an expert on Colombia-U.S. relations.
Yet deep differences between the two leaders persist, and hostility has persisted since the early days of Trump's second presidential term.
Days after Trump took office in January 2025, Petro said his government would not accept U.S. military planes carrying deported Colombian citizens, demanding that they be treated with dignity and respect. Trump retaliated by imposing a 25 percent tariff on all Colombian goods and revoking U.S. visas for certain government officials. After an agreement was reached on the deportation flights, the U.S. lifted the tariffs.
In September, the United States “decertified” Colombia for what it said was insufficient efforts to combat illegal drug production and trafficking, citing a surge in cocaine production and blaming “the omissions and incompetence of Gustavo Pedro and his inner circle.” Despite this, the exemption allowed continued U.S. aid to Colombia.
A week later, during the United Nations General Assembly, Petro stood on the street in New York City with a megaphone in his hand, addressing a pro-Palestinian rally, and called on American soldiers not to carry out illegal orders from their superiors. In response, the United States revoked his visa.
In October, financial sanctions were imposed against Peter, his wife, his son and Interior Minister Armando Benedetti, for what the US Treasury Department described as “their involvement in the global illegal drug trade”.
Although Colombia is the world's largest producer of cocaine, there is no evidence that Petro, who was elected in 2022, is involved in any way. The drug trade in Colombia is largely controlled by illegal armed groups, such as the Gulf Clan, the National Liberation Army (ELN) and dissident factions of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), most of whose members demobilized after a 2016 peace agreement.
Petrov's government seized record amounts of cocaine - 836,8 tons between January and October 2025 - but these successes have been overshadowed by growing coca cultivation and the potential for cocaine production, which the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) reportedly estimated at 3.000 tons in 2024, although official figures have not yet been released.
When the United States began bombing suspected drug ships in the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean, Petro accused American officials of being “perpetrators of murder” and of “violating our sovereignty in territorial waters.”
According to Benedetti, drug trafficking was one of the main topics of conversation between Pedro and Trump, with the Colombian president requesting US cooperation in the fight against ELN fighters, who often retreat to Venezuela when attacked in Colombia.
Until the phone call between the two presidents, Pedro's brash behavior had made him a prime target for Trump and members of his administration. The Colombian president clearly enjoys conflict, often posting lengthy tirades on social media and giving lengthy speeches. "The more they attack me, the more support I get," he told a reporter.
While many leftist leaders in Latin America, including Claudia Sheinbaum in Mexico and Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in Brazil, have clashed with Trump, Petro is “a special category,” said Adam Isakson of the Washington Office on Latin America. “This is a leader who speaks out every day about Trump and uses very strong language,” he added.
Petro's rebellious nature was formed when he joined the urban guerrilla group M-19 at the age of 17. He quickly rose through the ranks of the organization's political wing. By the time he was elected ombudsman in his hometown in 1981, he was already an active but secret member of M-19. The military arrested him in 1985 for possession of weapons, which he claimed were planted on him, and he was tortured for four days. Petro claimed that he had never taken part in the fighting.
M-19 was one of the first guerrilla groups to demobilize in 1990 and enter institutional politics after peace negotiations. After participating in the drafting of the new constitution, Petro was elected to Congress, beginning a long legislative career in which he won the most votes of all deputies in 2002.
As a congressman, Petro exposed evidence of politicians' collusion with right-wing paramilitary leaders, leading to accusations against allies of then-President Álvaro Uribe. Many of those Petro accused were later convicted. In 2011, he was elected mayor of the Colombian capital, Bogotá, where he served a tumultuous four-year term, during which he was briefly removed by the country's inspector general. After several unsuccessful presidential bids, he was elected president in 2022.
Borda warned that Petro's assertiveness could have negative consequences. "If Petro continues to provoke Trump, the political cost in the domestic political process will be increasing," she said.
Colombia will hold parliamentary elections in March, and the first round of presidential elections is scheduled for May. Petro, whose term ends on August 7, is constitutionally ineligible for a second term.
Isakson believes that the US's aggressive stance towards Colombia could strengthen leftist candidate Ivan Sepeda. "This new, aggressive America is a perfect theme for the left," he said.
Responding to US threats of military intervention, right-wing candidate Paloma Valencia of the Democratic Center party wrote on the X network: "Our legal and political reality is different from Venezuela's. We will defeat Pedro and his successors with votes at the polling stations... without anyone's intervention."
The animosity between Petro and Trump is unlikely to fade after one phone call — Maduro spoke with Trump less than two months before his arrest. Still, Borda said the conversation and the announced meeting in Washington were “a step in the right direction.”
Prepared by: SS
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