Colombian president invites Trump to witness cocaine lab demolition amid US war threat
Colombian President Gustavo Petro has invited the US president to witness the demolition of cocaine laboratories, after Donald Trump’s accusations that Bogotá is peddling cocaine to the United States.
During a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday, Trump accused Colombia of manufacturing cocaine and sending it into the United States.
“I hear Colombia, the country of Colombia, is making cocaine. They have cocaine manufacturing plants, OK, and then they sell us their cocaine,” he said, warning that anyone involved in such activity “is subject to attack.”
Petro quickly reacted to his warning, saying that his government has destroyed 18,400 cocaine laboratories “without missiles.”
Over the past month, the United States has carried out a major naval buildup in Latin American waters, escalating its rhetoric against the democratically elected governments of Venezuela and Colombia under the pretext of combating drug trafficking.
Relations between Bogotá and Washington have sharply deteriorated in recent months. The Trump administration has accused Petro of being soft on drug traffickers.
In September, Petro’s US visa was revoked after he joined protests in New York denouncing Israel’s genocide in Gaza and urging US soldiers to “disobey Trump’s orders.”
More recently, the US Department of the Treasury imposed sanctions on Petro, his family, and the South American country’s interior minister, Armando Benedetti.
Amid rising regional tensions, Petro is proceeding with a $4.3 billion deal to acquire 17 Swedish-made fighter jets.
This move comes as several Latin American states are on edge due to the US military build-up in the region, as US forces carry out a campaign of deadly attacks on vessels in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific.
The purchase is widely seen as a strategic effort by Colombia to modernize its air force and assert its defensive autonomy, particularly after recent provocative actions by Washington—including President Trump’s abrupt declaration of Venezuelan airspace as “closed,” which caused airlines to avoid the region over fears of US military action.
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