Colombia a military target?

Threat of strike baffles longtime U.S. ally, unsure whether to take President Trump at his word

- MICHAEL WILNER AND PATRICK J. MCDONNELL

COLOMBIA'S leader has clashed with President Trump. In Cali, a girl poses for birthday photographs.

JOAQUIN SARMIENTO AFP/Getty Images

An offhand comment by President Trump threatening to attack Colombia, a major U.S. ally, has roiled its government and confounded its public, anxious and unsure whether to take the U.S. leader seriously.

Trump’s remarks came during questions from reporters Tuesday over a prospective U.S. military campaign against drug trafficking networks in Latin America. The mission could expand beyond Venezuela, the prime target of nascent U.S. war plans, the president said.

“I hear Colombia, the country of Colombia, is making cocaine,” Trump said at a Cabinet meeting. “Then they sell us their cocaine. We appreciate that very much, but yeah, anybody that’s doing that and selling it into our country is subject to attack. Not just Venezuela.”

Gustavo Petro, Colombia’s first leftist president, who has repeatedly clashed with the White House, likened Trump's bellicose rhetoric to a declaration of war.

“Do not threaten our sovereignty, because you will awaken the Jaguar,” Petro wrote on X. “Attacking our sovereignty is declaring war; do not damage two centuries of diplomatic relations.”

In an official communique, the Colombian Foreign Ministry called on “brotherly” nations in Latin America and the Caribbean to reject “any attempt at foreign intervention that seeks to undermine sovereignty.”

Trump's latest threat comes amid deteriorating relations with Bogota, which celebrated 200 years of diplomatic relations with Washington just three years ago and, marking the occasion, was designated a major non-NATO ally by President Biden, a status celebrated across party lines on Capitol Hill.