President Donald Trump on Sunday night issued a not-so-thinly-veiled threat to Colombian President Gustavo Petro that he will be the next Latin American leader ousted by the U.S. Military.
Trump said Petro’s days running Colombia are numbered while speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One.
He said Venezuela is a “sick” country that was led by a narco-terrorist in dictator Nicolás Maduro until he was captured by the U.S. on Saturday. Trump then said Colombia, which borders Venezuela, could face the same treatment.
“Colombia is very sick too, run by a sick man who likes making cocaine and selling it to the United States,” Trump said. “And he’s not going to be doing it for very long, let me tell ya.”
A female reporter then asked the president, “So there will be an operation by the U.S. in Colombia?”
“Sounds good to me,” Trump responded.
Trump’s comments come a day after Maduro and his wife were arrested and flown to the U.S. in the daring early morning military operation. Maduro was charged in federal court in New York with narco-terrorism conspiracy, weapons charges, and cocaine-importation conspiracy. Maduro and three other defendants trafficked “thousands of tons of cocaine to the United States,” according to the indictment.
The president had blasted Maduro as a drug trafficking dictator several times in the months leading up to his arrest.
He has made similar comments about Petro as well. Trump called Petro a “fresh mouthed” and unpopular politician who was little more than an “illegal drug leader” in October.
The president ended all subsidies to Colombia at the same time, saying Petro had done nothing to “close up [the] killing fields” where drugs were produced.
Trump and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth have conducted a few dozen military strikes against suspected Latin American drug boats in the past few months. Those strikes that have been criticized by many Democratic lawmakers, as well as Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY).
You can listen to Trump’s comments about Petro above.
