Colombian President Gustavo Petro responded to his U.S. counterpart, Donald Trump, on Wednesday that he is 'misinformed' about the country, after the American leader warned he would be 'next,' referring to the pressure his government is exerting on Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. 'Trump is a very misinformed man about Colombia. It's a pity because he disdains the country that knows the most about cocaine trafficking. It seems his interlocutors are deceiving him completely,' Petro said while reading a message during a televised ministerial council that he said he would post on X. In turn, Trump stated that Petro 'will have big problems if he doesn't realize' that his country is 'producing a lot of drugs.' 'They have cocaine factories where they produce cocaine, as you know, and they sell it directly to the United States,' Trump claimed. In this regard, Petro highlighted that during his government, which began on August 7, 2022, there have been '1,446 land battles against the mafias' and '13 bombings trying to locate their leaders, many of these battles with shared military intelligence.' 'That's 2,700 tons of cocaine seized by my government, so far. The year 2025 is ending and we still have months left in 2026, so we will approach 4,000 tons,' the Colombian president expressed, stating that this is 'the largest seizure in world history.' He also affirmed that he has never been 'hostile to the United States, which fights for freedom and democracy,' but that he does not accept 'impositions, especially those based on the misinformation of people who take advice from Colombian politicians allied with mafias or former military personnel against whom major human rights violations or business dealings weigh.' Trump removed Colombia from the list of countries cooperating in the fight against drugs in September and subsequently sanctioned Petro, accusing him of being a 'narcotrafficking leader.' With today's message, the U.S. leader places Colombia in the crosshairs of the 'Southern Spire' operation he ordered to combat drug trafficking in Latin America, which has also increased tension with the government of Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela. Since September, the U.S. Armed Forces have destroyed more than two dozen vessels supposedly loaded with drugs in the Caribbean and the Pacific, near Venezuela and Colombia, killing more than 80 crew members. In this regard, Petro, a critic of that operation, stated today that 'it is not true that by launching missiles at fishermen, we are fighting against narco-terrorists.'
