Trump threatens Colombia after Venezuela raid; Petro fires back, warns of ‘jaguar’ uprising

After Maduro’s removal, US–Colombia ties slide into their sharpest crisis in decades.

• Trump suggests Colombia could face US military action after Venezuela operation
• Petro denies Trump's cocaine claims, warns intervention may destabilize Colombia.
• Colombia boosts president's security as political tensions rise

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The war of words between Washington and Bogotá has escalated sharply, days after US forces attacked Venezuela and removed Nicolás Maduro from power.

Speaking aboard Air Force One on Sunday, Donald Trump suggested Colombia could face similar action. According to The Guardian, Trump described the country as “very sick” and claimed it was “run by a sick man who likes making cocaine and selling it to the United States.”

When asked whether Colombia could be next after Venezuela, Trump replied: “It sounds good to me,” The Guardian reported.

The comments mark a dramatic escalation against one of Washington’s closest regional partners, and signal that the Venezuela operation may have widened US pressure across Latin America.

Cocaine claims and the evidence gap

Colombia is the world’s largest producer of cocaine. But there is no evidence linking President Gustavo Petro, elected in 2022, to drug trafficking.

For decades, Colombia has worked closely with the United States on counter-narcotics efforts, with bipartisan support in Washington. The country’s cocaine trade is controlled by illegal armed groups, including the Gulf Clan, the National Liberation Army (ELN), and dissident factions of the Farc guerrillas, most of whom demobilised after a 2016 peace agreement.

Relations, however, have deteriorated rapidly since Trump returned to office.

Petro hits back: “Stop slandering me”

Petro rejected Trump’s remarks outright, accusing the US president of reckless rhetoric.

“Trump speaks without knowledge. Stop slandering me,” Petro wrote on X, according to The Guardian. “I am not illegitimate and I am not a narco.”

He warned that US military action would destabilise the country rather than subdue it.

“If they bomb, the campesinos will become thousands of guerrillas in the mountains,” Petro said. “And if they detain the president which a large part of the country loves and respects, they will unleash the ‘jaguar’ of the people.”

The language underscored the depth of the crisis, and Petro’s fear that foreign intervention could revive Colombia’s long history of armed conflict.

From guerrilla past to presidential office

Petro spent part of his youth in the leftist M-19 guerrilla movement, which demobilised in the early 1990s. He did not take part in combat, later helped draft Colombia’s 1991 constitution, and went on to build a career as a lawmaker and mayor of Bogotá before winning the presidency.

Still, Trump’s comments revive Cold War–era narratives that Colombia thought it had left behind.

“I swore not to touch a weapon again,” Petro said, according to The Guardian. “But for the homeland, I will take up arms again.”

Security tightened, politics divided

Colombia’s defence minister, Pedro Sánchez, announced on Saturday that the president’s security detail had been reinforced.

At home, reaction has been mixed. While some right-wing opposition figures have aligned themselves with Trump, voices across Colombia’s political spectrum have rejected the idea of US military action.

The confrontation also follows months of mounting pressure from Washington. The US revoked Petro’s visa in September after he urged American soldiers to disobey illegal orders. In October, the Trump administration imposed financial sanctions on Petro, his wife, and close allies.

As the US expanded its military footprint in the Caribbean while targeting Venezuela, American forces have also carried out strikes on suspected drug boats in the eastern Pacific, west of Colombia’s coast, The Guardian reported.