WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump held a nearly two-hour meeting on Tuesday with his Colombian counterpart, Gustavo Petro, that both called friendly — a dramatic about-face from weeks earlier, when Trump accused Petro of pumping cocaine into the U.S. and threatened his country with military action.
Afterward, Trump tried to downplay his past criticisms, saying, “He and I weren’t exactly the best of friends, but I wasn’t insulted because I never met him. I didn’t know him at all.”
“We had a very good meeting,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office during a subsequent event. “I thought he was terrific.”
Petro held his own post-meeting news conference and said the pair emerged “with a positive and optimistic view.” He said, “What brings us together is freedom. And that’s how the meeting started out.”
Make (the) Americas Great Again
Colombia's president said Trump gave him a red “Make America Great Again” cap and Petro said he wanted to put an ‘s’ on it to make it, “Make (the) Americas Great Again,” a reference to North and South America being aligned culturally, economically and historically.
Petro has criticized Trump and the U.S. operation to capture Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro. But Trump said more recently that Colombia’s leader has become more willing to work with his administration to stem the flow of illegal drugs.
Petro said afterward that he and Trump had “looked at ways in which we can reactivate Venezuela” including through energy projects. Trump said the pair discussed cooperation in counternarcotics operations, which Petro echoed, while also noting that there are parts of his country where drug cultivation can be the only way to make a living.
“If people have no options to eat, and live in the jungle, or places where there is no transportation to produce something legal, what there will be is drug trafficking,” he said.
Petro said he also told Trump, “You need to go after the kingpins,” but that there's a belief in the U.S. and Colombia “that capos are the ones in uniform and (carrying) weapons in Colombia. That's the second line of drug trafficking. The top tier lives in Dubai, Madrid, Miami.” He said he provided the U.S. president with names.
Colombia's president also said he'd invited Trump to visit the Colombian resort city of Cartagena.
“We didn’t talk about personal matters, but I did invite him to Cartagena, which I told him was a cool and beautiful place to live,” Petro said. He also said that he'd sought Trump's help in mediating an escalating trade war between his country and Ecuador.
Trump gave Petro a copy of his book, “The Art of the Deal,” with a signed inscription reading, “You are great.” Petro posed a picture of the book on X and wrote ironically in Spanish, “What did Trump mean to say to me with this dedication? I don't understand English very well.”
Past tensions
Leading up to the meeting, Petro, a leftist politician, had continued to poke at the conservative U.S. president, calling Trump an “accomplice to genocide” in the Gaza Strip while asserting that the capture of Maduro was a kidnapping.
And, ahead of his departure for Washington, Petro called on Colombians to take to the streets of Bogotá during the White House meeting.
Just minutes before his conversation with Trump started, Petro, in a video shared by his office, described himself as a politician who has denounced and prosecuted drug traffickers.
Accompanied by one of his daughters and his granddaughter, he lamented that most of his children live outside Colombia, in exile, due to the fight he's waging against drug trafficking. “We have truly suffered its effects directly,” Petro said.
Shift in US-Colombia relations
Historically, Colombia has been a U.S. ally. For the past 30 years, the U.S. has worked closely with Colombia, the world’s largest producer of cocaine, to arrest drug traffickers, fend off rebel groups and boost economic development in rural areas. Colombia is also designated by the U.S. as a major non-NATO ally.
But relations between the leaders have been strained by Trump’s massing of U.S. forces in the region for unprecedented deadly military strikes targeting suspected drug-smuggling boats in the Caribbean Sea and the eastern Pacific. At least 126 people have been killed in 36 known strikes.
In October, Trump's Republican administration announced it was imposing sanctions on Petro, his family and a member of his government over accusations of involvement in the global drug trade.
The Treasury Department leveled the penalties against Petro; his wife, Veronica del Socorro Alcocer Garcia; his son, Nicolas Fernando Petro Burgos; and Colombian Interior Minister Armando Alberto Benedetti.
The sanctions, which had to be waived to allow Petro to travel to Washington this week, came after the U.S. administration in September announced it was adding Colombia to a list of nations failing to cooperate in the drug war for the first time in three decades.
Then came the audacious military operation last month to capture Maduro and his wife to face federal drug conspiracy charges, a move that Petro has forcefully denounced. Following Maduro’s ouster, Trump put Colombia on notice and ominously warned Petro he could be next.
Colombia is “run by a sick man who likes making cocaine and selling it to the United States,” Trump said of Petro last month. “And he’s not gonna be doing it very long, let me tell you.”
But a few days later, tensions eased somewhat after a call between the leaders. Trump said Petro in their hourlong conversation explained “the drug situation and other disagreements.” And Trump extended an invitation to Petro for the White House visit.
Trump skipped greeting Petro, who came bearing gifts
In a diplomatic gesture, Colombian officials said Petro came bearing gifts, including a signature Wounaan indigenous basket from Colombia's Chocó region for Trump and a handmade gown crafted by indigenous artisans from Nariño for first lady Melania Trump.
Trump didn't personally greet Petro upon his arrival and pose for a photograph with him in front of the North Portico of the White House before a gathered press — a set piece for most foreign leaders' visits. Instead, Petro arrived at a side entrance of the White House.
___
Suarez reported from Bogotá, Colombia. Associated Press writers Will Weissert and Moriah Balingit contributed to this report.