Colombia recalls ambassador from US amid tariff, drug spat

BOGOTA - Colombia said on Oct 20 that it has recalled its ambassador from the United States after US President Donald Trump said he would raise tariffs on the South American nation and stop all payments to it, in a feud stemming from US military strikes on vessels allegedly transporting drugs.

Mr Trump also

called Colombian President Gustavo Petro an “illegal drug leader”

on Oct 19, which Mr Petro’s government described as offensive.

Colombia’s peso currency opened with a 1.4 per cent fall to 3,889 pesos to the US dollar in trading on the morning of Oct 20.

“Daniel Garcia-Pena, Ambassador of Colombia in the United States of America, has been recalled for consultations by President Gustavo Petro and is now in Bogota,” the Colombian Foreign Ministry said.

“In the coming hours, the national government will inform of the decisions taken.”

Colombia’s largest trading partner

Mr Trump’s drug leader comments marked a new low in relations between Washington and Bogota, which Mr Trump accuses of being complicit in the illicit drug trade.

Mr Petro has objected to the US military’s strikes against vessels in the Caribbean, which have killed dozens of people and inflamed tensions in the region.

Many legal experts and human rights activists have also condemned the military actions.

Mr Trump said US financial aid to Colombia would be cut off and details about the new tariffs would be unveiled on Oct 20, but it was not clear what funding Mr Trump was referring to.

Colombia was once among the largest recipients of US aid in the Western Hemisphere, but the flow of money was suddenly curtailed in 2025 by the shuttering of USAid, the US government’s humanitarian arm.

The oil-producing nation currently pays tariffs of 10 per cent on most imports to the US, the baseline level Mr Trump has imposed on many countries.

The US is Colombia’s top trading partner, and shipments north account for 35 per cent of the South American country’s exports, according to the Colombian-American Chamber of Commerce, while 70 per cent of imports from the US are items not produced in Colombia.

Colombia’s Foreign Ministry has vowed to seek international support for Mr Petro, who first rose to prominence as a senator by exposing links between right-wing paramilitary groups involved in drug trafficking and corrupt politicians, as well as for the country’s autonomy.

Mr Petro on Oct 19 condemned a new bombing of a vessel which killed three people, saying the boat belonged to a “humble family”, and not the leftist National Liberation Army rebel group, as claimed by US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth in his own comments.

“Mr Trump, Colombia has never been rude to the United States... but you are rude and ignorant to Colombia,” Mr Petro said on social media platform X.

“Since I am not a businessman, I am even less a drug trafficker. There is no greed in my heart.”

Mr Petro has pledged to tame coca-growing regions in the country with massive social and military intervention, but the strategy has brought little success.

Colombia, a big exporter of oil, coal, coffee, flowers and bananas, posted a US$338 million (S$437.6 million) trade deficit with the US between January and July, according to government statistics agency Dane.

Investors from the US invested US$2.27 billion in Colombia in the first half of the year, according to central bank figures, some 34 per cent of total foreign investment received during that period. REUTERS