The leader of the top cocaine-exporting nation in Latin America issued threatening statements directed at President Trump on Sunday in response to the ongoing U.S. crackdown on drug cartels.
Colombian President Gustavo Petro had bold words for Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio in a speech on Sunday, warning the president not to “attack the condor” following repeated strikes on cartel boats and a massive pressure campaign against Latin American nations that back and enable those cartels. The Trump administration has reportedly mulled striking cartel targets in both Venezuela and Mexico.
“Beware. There are people in the Caribbean that have always been used to hurricanes and can unleash themselves like one…” Petro said in his remarks according to a Daily Caller News Foundation translation. “Like the legend goes, ‘if the golden eagle attacks the condor, the American people’s jaguar awakens.’ Don’t awaken the jaguar. We can still talk. South America can save the U.S. by cleaning up its energetic(sic) grid.”
Colombia has a massive role in the illicit drug trade as the world’s top exporter of cocaine and hosts a sprawling criminal underworld.
Petro is an avowed leftist and frequent critic of Trump, formerly a member of the M-19 Marxist militant group turned political party.
Petro previously said it was time to “get rid” of President Trump in October in the wake of the bombing of a suspected drug cartel boat. Trump has characterized the president as an “illegal drug leader” while describing cocaine farms in Colombia as “killing fields.”
Colombia exported a record high of 2,664 metric tons of cocaine in 2023, according to United Nations statistics. Petro has claimed that cocaine is outlawed in part because it was chiefly made in Latin America, saying the powerful, addictive narcotic is “no worse than whiskey.”
The State Department did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
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