US President Donald Trump invited his Colombian counterpart Gustavo Petro to the White House in an apparent attempt to mend ties between the former allies.
Trump announced that he talked with Petro on the phone and invited the Colombian president in a post on his website Truth Social.
It was a great honor to speak with the President of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, who called to explain the situation of drugs and other disagreements that we have had. I appreciated his call and tone, and look forward to meeting him in the near future.
US President Donald Trump
Petro announced the invitation at an anti-imperialist rally in Bogota that was organized in response to recent threats made by Trump against Colombia and his counterpart.
Before a jubilant crowd, Petro reiterated that the strained relations between the governments was due to a lack of communication between the governments and lies told to the US president by Miami elites with ties to organized crime.
“They were able to convince Trump that I owned cocaine factories” and “they told him I was a front man of [Venezuela’s ousted President Nicolas] Maduro,” said the Colombian head of state.
They tricked Trump, in my opinion, and he came out saying something that is absurd to any Colombian citizen: that Petro is the head of drug trafficking, when he was almost killed four times.
President Gustavo Petro
According to Petro, the hour-long conversation allowed him to inform Trump on progress made in his government’s efforts to combat drug trafficking.
Amid tensions between the two administrations, the US Government refused to certify Colombia as a country that cooperates in US efforts to combat drug trafficking, and added Petro to a blacklist for drug traffickers and money launderers.
The renewed efforts to establish ties did not immediately lead to Trump revoking the sanctions on his Colombian counterpart and the reduction of aid to counternarcotics initiatives in the South American Country.
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