Trump Announces Tariffs, Ending US Aid to Colombia: NPR

PALM BEACH, Fla. — The United States will reduce aid to Colombia and impose tariffs on its exports because the country’s leader Gustavo Petro is “doing nothing to stop” drug production, President Donald Trump said Sunday, escalating friction between Washington and one of its closest allies in Latin America.

In a social media post, Trump referred to Petro as an “illegal drug lord” who is “low-rated and very unpopular.” The Republican president warned that Petro “better shut down” the drug operations “or the United States will shut them down for him, and it won’t go over well.”

Later in the day, Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One that Colombia “doesn’t have a war on drugs” and “they’re a drug machine” with a “crazy” president. He said he would announce the new tariffs on Monday.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth also announced the latest US strike on a ship that was allegedly carrying “large quantities of drugs.”

He said the ship was linked to a Colombian rebel group — the National Liberation Army, or ELN — that was in conflict with Petro’s government. He did not provide any evidence for his assertions, but shared a short video of a boat that caught fire after Friday’s explosion.

Petro, who can be as vocal on social media as his American counterpart, rejected Trump’s accusations and defended his anti-drug work in Colombia, the world’s largest exporter of cocaine.

“Attempting to promote peace in Colombia is not drug trafficking,” Petro wrote. He indicated that his advisors deceived Trump, described himself as the “main enemy” of drugs in his country, and said that Trump was “rude and ignorant toward Colombia.”

The Colombian Foreign Ministry described Trump’s statement as a “direct threat to national sovereignty by proposing an illegal intervention in Colombian territory.” Defense Minister Pedro Sanchez told reporters that the country “used all its capabilities and also lost men and women in the fight against drug trafficking.”

Trump’s recent criticism against Petro raises the possibility of expanding the clash in Latin America, where the United States has already increased pressure on neighboring Venezuela and its leader Nicolas Maduro.

US naval vessels, combat aircraft and drones are deployed in the region in what the administration has described as an “armed conflict” with drug cartels. Trump also allowed covert operations inside Venezuela.

Unlike Venezuela, Colombia is a long-time US ally and the largest recipient of US aid in the region. But coca cultivation reached an all-time high last year, according to the United Nations, and new violence has occurred in rural areas where the government spent years fighting rebels before reaching a peace deal a decade ago.

In September, the Trump administration accused Colombia of failing to cooperate in the drug war, even though Washington at the time issued a sanctions waiver that would have resulted in aid cuts.

Colombia received an estimated $230 million in the US fiscal year that ended September 30, a decline from recent years of more than $700 million, according to US figures.

Petro, Colombia’s first leftist president, has repeatedly feuded with Trump this year. Petro initially rejected US military flights for deported migrants, prompting Trump to threaten tariffs. The State Department said it would revoke Petro’s visa when he attended the United Nations General Assembly in New York because he asked American soldiers to disobey Trump’s orders.

Petro and Trump have also been at loggerheads over US strikes on boats in the Caribbean. Petro on Sunday accused the US government of assassination, pointing to the September 16 strike that he said killed a Colombian man named Alejandro Carranza. Pietro said Carranza was a fisherman and had nothing to do with drug trafficking, and his boat was broken down when it was bombed.

“The United States invaded our national territory, launched a missile to kill a humble fisherman, and destroyed his family and children. This is Bolivar’s homeland, and they are killing his children with bombs,” Petro wrote on social media. He said that he asked his country’s Attorney General’s Office to initiate legal proceedings at the international level and in American courts.

The White House and Pentagon did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Petro’s accusations.

Despite Petro’s criticism, his government plans to prosecute the Colombian survivor of the recent US raid on a submarine that was allegedly carrying drugs.

Another survivor was returned to Ecuador, where the Interior Ministry said he would not face charges after prosecutors met with him and determined he had not committed any crimes within the country’s borders.

The ELN, which Hegseth said was the target of Friday’s attack, has long denied any role in drug trafficking and has offered to submit to the scrutiny of an international commission. She did not respond to Hegseth’s announcement. Colombian authorities regularly report the dismantling of cocaine laboratories and the seizure of drugs believed to be owned by the rebels.

There have been seven US strikes in the region since early September, which the administration says target alleged drug traffickers. At least 32 people were killed.

Trump said on Sunday that Petro has a “fresh mouth for America.” He complained that drug trafficking continues “despite widespread payments and subsidies from the United States that are nothing more than a long-term rip-off of America.”

“As of today, these payments or any other form of payment or subsidies will not be provided to Colombia,” he added.

“It is baffling and completely unwise for the United States to alienate its most powerful military partner in Latin America at a time when tensions between Washington and Venezuela are at their highest levels in recent years,” said Elizabeth Dickinson, senior Andean analyst at the International Crisis Group.

Washington and Bogotá have long treated their relationship as essential, but “that wisdom is being thrown away, with truly disastrous effects,” she said.

Colombia lost significant US funding when Trump decided to cut the US Agency for International Development earlier this year. Further cuts could affect military cooperation and undermine efforts to combat rebel groups.

“If this is cut off, we will see a strategic loss of capabilities for the Colombian military and police at the precise time they are facing the biggest security crisis in Colombia in more than a decade,” she added.