The United States will slash funding to Colombia because the South American country’s leader “does nothing to stop” drug production, us President Donald Trump said Sunday.
“The purpose of this drug production is the sale of massive amounts of product into the United States, causing death, destruction, and havoc,” he said on his Truth Social platform.
He said Colombian President Gustavo Petro “better close up” drug operations “or the United States will close them up for him, and it won’t be done nicely.”
Relations between Bogota and Washington have frayed over the last few months. In September, Trump accused Colombia of failing to cooperate in the drug war.
Then the US State Department revoked Petro’s visa during his UN visit after he joined a pro-Palestinian demonstration in New York and urged US soldiers to disobey Trump’s orders.
Colombia accuses US of violating sovereignty in strike
In a statement late Saturday, Petro had accused the United States of violating his nation’s sovereignty and killing a fisherman.
That came after Trump had said US forces had carried out another strike as part of his controversial military clamp down against “narcoterrorists.”
“US government officials have committed a murder and violated our sovereignty in territorial waters,” Colombian leader Gustavo Petro said on Saturday in a statement on X.
Petro identified the fisherman as Alejandro Carranza, adding that he had “no ties to the drug trade”.
Carranza reportedly died in a September strike by US forces on his boat while he was fishing the Caribbean, as per a video testimony of his family members, which was shared by Petro on X.
The president said that the Colombian’s boat was “adrift” and had its distress signal up because of an engine failure.
“We await explanations from the US government,” Petro added.
Survivors from ‘drug boat’ strike repatriated
Colombia’s allegations came shortly after Trump confirmed a US strike in the Caribbean on Thursday on what he called “a drug-carrying submarine.”
“It was my great honor to destroy a very large DRUG-CARRYING SUBMARINE that was navigating towards the United States on a well known narcotrafficking transit route.” the US president said on Truth Social on Saturday.
Trump gave no evidence for the claim, only sharing a short video clip which appeared to show a semi-submersible vessel in the water before being struck by at least one projectile.
Trump said US intelligence confirmed that the vessel was “loaded up with mostly Fentanyl, and other illegal narcotics.”
Four people were on board the vessel, two of whom died in the targeted strike.
The US military conducted a helicopter rescue of the two survivors.
The individuals, who were the first to survive such US attacks, were taken into custody.
On Saturday, Trump said the two were being repatriated to their home countries, Ecuador and Colombia.
Petro confirmed that the Colombian suspect had returned and would face prosecution.
“We have received the Colombian detained on the narco submarine, we are happy he is alive and he will be processed according to the law,” the Colombian president said in a post on X.
Trump’s drug crackdown
The strike on Thursday is reported to be the sixth US attack on “narco” boats off the coast of Venezuela this year.
The Trump administration says that 27 people have been killed in the strikes.
The US action has triggered concern among experts over the legality of such extrajudicial killings.
Edited by: Saim Dušan Inayatullah and Karl Sexton
