U.S. alliance with Colombia in peril

Trump's airstrikes and leaders' verbal attacks harm partnership to fight drug trafficking.

- BY KATE LINTHICUM AND PATRICK J. MCDONNELL

RAUL ARBOLEDA AFP/Getty Images COLOMBIA has defended its record in deterring drug trafficking despite a rise in coca production.

For decades, Colombia and the United States have been devoted allies, sharing military intelligence, a robust trade relationship and a multi-billion-dollar fight against drug trafficking.

Now that is all at risk as the U.S. ramps up deadly airstrikes off Colombia's coast and the leaders of both nations trade scathing verbal attacks.

President Trump called Gustavo Petro, a former guerrilla fighter and Colombia's first leftist president, an "illegal drug dealer." Petro called Trump "rude" and accused the U.S. of murder, saying an American strike on an alleged Venezuelan drug boat had killed a Colombian fisherman in Colombian waters.

Petro has decried the massive buildup of U.S. troops, warships and jets in the Caribbean, which, he charges, aims to force a change of governments in neighboring Venezuela.

Relations between the nations hit their lowest point in memory Monday as the Colombian government recalled its ambassador to the United States, and Trump vowed to suspend all U.S. aid to Colombia and impose new tariffs on imports from the South American nation.

"Petro does nothing to stop" drug trafficking, Trump charged on his social media site, "despite large scale payments and subsidies from the USA that are nothing more than a long term rip off of America."

The Colombian leader, Trump warned, "better close up these killing fields immediately, or the United States will close them up for him, and it won't be done nicely."

Petro has defended his record in deterring drug trafficking despite rising production in Colombia of coca plants, the raw material in cocaine. He has said the rampant consumption of illicit drugs in the United States and Europe is behind the bloody drug war in Latin America.