{"id":110348,"date":"2026-01-08T09:49:35","date_gmt":"2026-01-08T09:49:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=110348"},"modified":"2026-01-08T09:49:35","modified_gmt":"2026-01-08T09:49:35","slug":"trump-invites-colombian-president-to-white-house-after-threatening-his-country-with-military-strike","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=110348","title":{"rendered":"Trump invites Colombian president to White House after threatening his country with military strike"},"content":{"rendered":"
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President Donald Trump abruptly changed his tone Wednesday about his Colombian counterpart, Gustavo Petro, saying they had exchanged a friendly phone call and he\u2019d even invited the leader of the South American country to the White House.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a Great Honour to speak with the President of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, who called to explain the situation of drugs and other disagreements that we have had,\u201d Trump posted on his social media site. \u201cI appreciated his call and tone, and look forward to meeting him in the near future.\u201d<\/p>\n

He wrote that the upcoming meeting would take place at the White House.<\/p>\n

That came mere days after Trump said in the wake of the U.S. operation to oust Venezuelan President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro over the weekend that \u201cColombia is very sick too\u201d and accused Petro of \u201dmaking cocaine and selling it to the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n

In comments to reporters aboard Air Force One on Sunday, Trump added of Petro, \u201cHe\u2019s not going to be doing it very long, let me tell you.\u201d Asked whether U.S. intervention was possible, Trump responded, \u201dSounds good to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Later Wednesday, addressing thousands of protesters that he had mobilised to rally against U.S. military threats, Petro said he had spoken with Trump for roughly one hour.<\/p>\n

\u201cI talked about two things: Venezuela and the issue of drug trafficking,\u201d he told the crowd in downtown Bogot\u00e1, where demonstrators had just minutes earlier chanted slogans against the United States at Petro\u2019s behest.<\/p>\n

Petro explained to the audience that Colombian politicians allegedly linked to narco-trafficking misled the U.S. president about Petro\u2019s record to turn Trump against him.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose (people) are responsible for this crisis \u2014 let\u2019s call it diplomatic for now, verbal for now \u2014 that has erupted between the U.S. and Colombia,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Trump now suddenly warming to Petro is especially surprising since Colombia\u2019s president called the U.S. operation in Venezuela an \u201cabhorrent\u201d violation of Latin American sovereignty. He also suggested it was committed by \u201censlavers\u201d and constituted a \u201cspectacle of death\u201d comparable to Nazi Germany\u2019s 1937 carpet bombing of Guernica, Spain.<\/p>\n

Colombia has long been among America\u2019s staunchest Latin American allies, a pillar of Washington\u2019s counternarcotics strategy abroad. For three decades, the U.S. has worked closely with Colombia, the world\u2019s largest producer of cocaine, to arrest drug traffickers, fend off rebel groups and boost economic development in rural areas.<\/p>\n

Still, before Trump\u2019s conciliatory post, tensions had been rising between the U.S. and Colombia for months.<\/p>\n

The Trump administration imposed sanctions in October on Petro, his family and a member of his government over accusations of involvement in the global drug trade. Colombia is considered the epicentre of the world\u2019s cocaine trade.<\/p>\n

Trump began his monthslong pressure campaign on Maduro by ordering dozens of lethal strikes on alleged drug smuggling boats launched from Venezuela in the Caribbean. He eventually expanded the operations to also target suspected vessels in the eastern Pacific that came from Colombia.<\/p>\n

The U.S. in September added Colombia, the top recipient of American assistance in the region, to a list of nations failing to cooperate in the drug war for the first time in almost 30 years. The designation led to a slashing of U.S. assistance to the country.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"TrumpPresident Donald Trump abruptly changed his tone Wednesday about his Colombian counterpart, Gustavo Petro, saying they had exchanged a friendly phone call and he\u2019d even invited the leader of the South American country to the White House. \u201cIt was a Great Honour to speak with the President of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, who called to explain [\u2026]<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_2277560469115098_106292521332774":"","twitter_aToxNzczMzI3Njk4OTg4ODUxMjAxOw==_1773327698988851200":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15056,15057,1910,117,10,9,15058,2577],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-110348","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-columbia","category-gustavo-petro","category-international","category-news","category-politics","category-popular","category-president-trump","category-usa"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110348","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=110348"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110348\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=110348"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=110348"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=110348"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}