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US President Donald Trump said on Sunday that he would halt financial aid and subsidies to Colombia, citing the South American country’s failure to curb its growing cocaine production.
Trump described Colombian President Gustavo Petro as an “illegitimate drug lord” and accused him of “aggressively encouraging the massive production of drugs” throughout the country, adding that it had “become the largest trade” in Colombia.
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This photo shows President Donald Trump and Colombian President Gustavo Petro. (Getty Images)
“Petro is doing nothing to stop this,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, adding that US payments and subsidies meant to help Colombia tackle drug production “are nothing more than a long-term fraud to America.”
“As of today, these payments or any other form of payment or subsidies will not be sent to Colombia,” Trump added.
Trump warned that Colombian drugs are “causing death, destruction and devastation” as his administration steps up efforts to tighten borders and combat the country’s ongoing drug epidemic.
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Colombian President Gustavo Petro is one of the most vocal critics of the Trump administration’s use of lethal strikes on boats in the Caribbean. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)
Trump also warned that Petro “better shut down these killing fields right away, or the United States will close them to him, and that won’t go over well.”
The Colombian Embassy in Washington, D.C., did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment, and the White House did not respond to a separate request for further comment.
Last month, the Trump administration revoked Petro’s US visa after “reckless and inflammatory actions” in New York City.
Trump posts video of a drone strike on a submarine carrying drugs
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Petro also strongly criticized the Trump administration for allowing lethal strikes on boats in the Caribbean that US officials said were transporting drugs.
US and Guyanese law enforcement authorities seized approximately 5,200 pounds of cocaine from a self-propelled drug submarine operating off the coast of Guyana on March 21, 2024. (US Treasury Department)
Petro said during his speech before the United Nations General Assembly: “Criminal proceedings must be opened against those officials who are from the United States, even if they include the highest-ranking official who issued the order: President Trump.”
He added that the boat’s passengers were not members of the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang, as the Trump administration claimed after the first attack.