Trump announces tariffs, end of US aid to Colombia: NPR

PALM BEACH, Fla. — The United States will cut 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, intensifying friction between Washington and one of its closest allies in Latin America.

In a social media post, Trump called Petro an “illegal drug leader” who is “low-rated and very unpopular.” The Republican president warned that Petro “had better put an end to anti-drug operations”, “otherwise the United States will close them for him, and that will not be done well”.

Later in the day, Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One that Colombia had “no drug war” and “it’s a drug-making machine” with “a lunatic” for president. He said he would announce new rates on Monday.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth also announced the latest US strike against a ship carrying “substantial quantities of narcotics.”

He said the ship was associated with a Colombian rebel group — the National Liberation Army, or ELN — that was in conflict with Petro’s government. He provided no proof for his claims, but shared a brief video clip of a boat engulfed in flames after an explosion on Friday.

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

“Trying to promote peace in Colombia is not being a drug trafficker,” Petro wrote. He suggested Trump had been misled by his advisers, described himself as “the main enemy” of drugs in his country and said Trump was “rude and ignorant towards Colombia.”

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

Trump’s latest attack on Petro raises the possibility of a broader conflict in Latin America, where the United States has already increased pressure on neighboring Venezuela and its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

U.S. military ships, warplanes and drones are deployed to the region for what the administration has described as an “armed conflict” with drug cartels. Trump also authorized covert operations in Venezuela.

Unlike Venezuela, Colombia is a longtime U.S. ally and the largest recipient of U.S. aid in the region. But coca cultivation hit a record high last year, according to the United Nations, and new violence has erupted in rural areas where the government spent years fighting insurgents before reaching a peace deal a decade ago.

In September, the Trump administration accused Colombia of not cooperating in the war on drugs, although at the time Washington lifted sanctions that would have triggered a reduction in aid.

Colombia received about $230 million in the U.S. budget year that ended Sept. 30, a drop from previous years that exceeded $700 million, according to U.S. figures.

Petro, Colombia’s first left-wing president, has clashed repeatedly with Trump this year. Petro initially rejected U.S. military flights of deported migrants, leading Trump to threaten tariffs. The State Department announced it would revoke Petro’s visa while he attended the United Nations General Assembly in New York because he had asked U.S. soldiers to disobey Trump’s orders.

Petro and Trump also disagree over U.S. strikes on ships in the Caribbean. On Sunday, Petro accused the U.S. government of assassination, pointing to a Sept. 16 strike that he said killed a Colombian named Alejandro Carranza. Petro said Carranza was a fisherman with no ties to drug trafficking and his boat was malfunctioning when it was struck.

“The United States invaded our national territory, fired a missile to kill a humble fisherman and destroyed his family and his children. This is Bolívar’s homeland and they are murdering his children with bombs,” Petro wrote on social media. He said he had asked his country’s attorney general’s office to pursue legal action internationally and in U.S. 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 a recent U.S. strike on a submersible that was allegedly carrying drugs.

Another survivor was repatriated 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 strike, has long denied any role in drug trafficking and has offered to submit itself to scrutiny by an international commission. He did not respond to Hegseth’s announcement. Colombian authorities regularly report the dismantling of cocaine laboratories and the seizure of drugs belonging to the guerrillas.

There have been seven U.S. strikes in the region since early September that the administration says target suspected drug traffickers. At least 32 people were killed.

Trump said Sunday that Petro had “a new mouth toward America.” He lamented that drug trafficking continues “despite large-scale payments and subsidies from the United States that are nothing but a long-term scam for America.”

“As of today, these payments, nor any other form of payment or subsidy, will no longer be made to Colombia,” he added.

Elizabeth Dickinson, senior analyst for the Andes region at the International Crisis Group, said “it is puzzling and deeply reckless 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 level in recent years.”

She said Washington and Bogota have long viewed their relationship as foundational, but “that wisdom is being thrown out the window, with truly catastrophic effects.”

Colombia lost significant U.S. funding when Trump gutted the U.S. Agency for International Development earlier this year. Further cuts could affect military cooperation and undermine efforts to fight rebel groups.

“If this budget is removed, we will see a strategic loss of capacity for the Colombian army and police, precisely at a time when they are facing the greatest security crisis in Colombia in more than a decade,” she said.