Trump cuts off aid to Colombia, calling leader a drug dealer

WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump accused the president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, of being an “illegal drug dealer” and said the country will no longer receive US aid. 

Drug trafficking “has become the biggest business in Columbia, by far, and Petro does nothing to stop it, despite large scale payments and subsidies from the USA that are nothing more than a long term rip off of America,” Mr Trump said Oct 19 in a social media post, misspelling the country’s name.

“AS OF TODAY, THESE PAYMENTS, OR ANY OTHER FORM OF PAYMENT, OR SUBSIDIES, WILL NO LONGER BE MADE” to the country. 

The move by Mr Trump marks the latest escalation between the two countries.

Mr Trump in September “decertified” Colombia as a partner in its effort to combat the drug trade, relegating the longtime US ally to the same category as Venezuela, Bolivia, Afghanistan and Myanmar. 

The decision came amid the biggest cocaine boom in history, with most of the world’s soaring production originating in Colombia.

Mr Trump’s decision to cut aid will further strain one of Washington’s closest security alliances in Latin America.

Colombia has been among the biggest recipients of US aid this century, receiving about US$14 billion (S$18.13 billion), including military assistance to battle drug cartels and Marxist insurgents.

Since taking office in 2022, Mr Petro has sought “total peace” through negotiations with guerrillas and the country’s private armies of drug traffickers.

That has meant less emphasis on fighting the groups militarily and forcibly eradicating bushes of coca, the raw material used to make cocaine.

That strategy has so far failed to reduce violence or curb the flow of cocaine, though talks with some groups are advanced.

Colombia now produces more than six times as much cocaine as it did in 1993, the year when drug kingpin Pablo Escobar was gunned down, and more than Peru and Bolivia – the only other significant producers of the drug – combined.

Mr Trump’s post comes just a day after the administration announced the two survivors of a US attack on a submarine he claimed was carrying illegal drugs in the Caribbean will be returned to their home countries of Colombia and Ecuador. 

Mr Petro, who has clashed publicly with Mr Trump, said on Oct 18 in a social media post that US government officials committed a “murder” in the vessel attacks. 

In September,

the US abruptly cancelled Mr Petro’s visa

after he called on US soldiers to disobey Mr Trump, during a pro-Palestinian protest on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York.

Mr Petro shrugged off the episode, but the pair have continued to spar. 

In his post on Oct 19, Mr Trump said Mr Petro has “a fresh mouth towards America”.

Mr Petro’s presidential term ends next August, and he’s not eligible for reelection. BLOOMBERG