Colombian President Petro resumes criticism of US after detente with Trump

By Matthew Bristow

 

Colombian President Gustavo Petro renewed his criticism of US policy after briefly softening his tone this week following a phone call with Donald Trump. 

Petro told the BBC in an interview recorded Thursday that Washington is treating other nations as though they’re part of “a US empire,” and accused US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, agents of acting like “Nazi brigades.”

 

Petro has been one of Trump’s most bitter antagonists in the Americas over the last year. That was until Wednesday when the two had their first phone call, which Petro described as his chance to clear up the US president’s misconceptions about drug trafficking. Trump said afterward that it was an honor to speak with Petro and that he liked his tone. 

 

 

Petro, addressing supporters in Bogota just after the call, signaled that he had planned to make a “tough” speech attacking Trump, but would now moderate his language. 

 

Biting his tongue doesn’t come naturally to the firebrand former guerrilla, however, and the moderation wouldn’t last long.

 

He told the BBC that the threat of US military intervention was real, and said that Colombia had been a victim of US violence at the start of the 20th century.  

 

He also criticized the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement, after an ICE officer shot and killed a woman in Minneapolis, which sparked demonstrations across the country. 

 

“For us, ICE operates the same way as the Nazi and Italian fascist brigades,” he said. “They no longer just persecute Latin Americans in the streets, which for us is an affront, but they also kill US citizens.”

 

In a more muted interview published Friday, Petro told CBS News that he and Trump had a similar vision for a shared power in Venezuela between the government of acting President Delcy Rodríguez and the opposition. He also said that a US attack on Colombia would be a “dumb policy” that might trigger a civil war in the Andean nation, according to CBS. 

 

Trump and Petro are scheduled to meet face-to-face at the White House in the first week of February. 

 

Petro’s foreign policy approach, which includes posting combative comments on social media in the middle of the night, contrasts with the more measured tactics of other leftist presidents in Latin America, such as Mexico’s Claudia Sheinbaum and Brazil’s Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who have sought to avoid trouble with Trump where possible. 

 

When Trump raised the prospect of military action against Colombia after last week’s capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, Petro was defiant, calling Trump senile and saying, “Come and get me!”  

 

In addition to their personality clashes, Trump has repeatedly complained about record Colombian cocaine production.   

 

Last year, the US put Colombia on Washington’s list of rogue drug-trafficking nations and also canceled Petro’s visa after he called on troops to disobey Trump’s orders. In October, the US Treasury sanctioned Petro and members of his inner circle personally, effectively barring Petro from the US financial system.