New Delhi: Colombian President Gustavo Petro has hit back at Donald Trump after the US president warned him to “watch his ass” following Washington bombed Venezuela and captured President Nicolas Maduro.
A former guerrilla who laid down arms and went on to become Colombia’s first-ever Leftist president, Petro said he was prepared to fight if Trump followed through on his threats. “I swore not to touch a weapon again… but for the homeland, I will take up arms again,” he wrote on X, according to news agency AFP.
Trump called Petro “a sick man who likes making cocaine and selling it to the United States”. The US administration has for years levelled similar accusations of narco-terrorism against Maduro, his wife and other Venezuelan leaders, before announcing their “capture” last Saturday (January 3).
Petro has defended his government’s actions on drugs by pointing to major cocaine seizures. He has also highlighted efforts to reduce coca cultivation, both before and after Trump’s statements.
In another post on X, the Colombian leader criticised US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and accused him of misrepresenting Colombia’s constitutional structure. He said the country’s president is, under the law, the Supreme Commander of both the military and the police.
Detailing his administration’s record, he said Colombia had overseen what he described as the world’s largest cocaine seizure, slowed the expansion of coca crops and launched a voluntary crop substitution programme covering about 30,000 hectares. He said security forces had targeted major drug trafficking hubs and armed groups while operating within the bounds of humanitarian law.
Petro, whose M-19 urban guerrilla movement disarmed under a 1989 peace agreement, has been locked in an escalating war of words with Trump since the Republican leader returned to the White House in January 2025.
He has emerged as a vocal critic of US military activity in the Caribbean, which began with the destruction of alleged drug boats, expanded to the seizure of Venezuelan oil tankers and culminated in Saturday’s raid on Caracas to detain President Maduro.
Trump has accused Petro of involvement in drug trafficking without presenting evidence and has imposed financial sanctions on him and his family. Washington has also removed Colombia from the list of countries certified as allies in the US-led war on drugs.
In his lengthy post on X, Petro said his anti-narcotics strategy was firm and effective, while outlining clear limits on the use of force. “If you bomb even one of these groups without sufficient intelligence, you will kill many children. If you bomb peasants, thousands will turn into guerrillas in the mountains. And if you detain the president, whom a good part of my people love and respect, you will unleash the popular jaguar,” he wrote.
The Trump administration is aligned with Colombia’s right-wing opposition, which is entering an election year and hopes to win both legislative and presidential contests later this year.
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