Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio exchanged snides amid a formal visit of American officials to the South American country.
Rubio opened the attack when appearing on a podcast on Tuesday.
In the podcast, the US Secretary of State said Petro “has been quite erratic in his decision making and some of the things he’s doing.”
So look, we’re very concerned about Colombia. Unfortunately, the president of Colombia right now, this guy Petro, is just in our view someone who has been quite erratic in his decision making and some of the things he’s doing.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio
According to Rubio, Petro’s alleged erratic behaviour is a problem because of “drug gangs that are operating out of Venezuela with impunity.”
They openly operate out of Venezuela but project power into Colombia and are destabilizing the country. And it would be tragic because Colombia’s come a long way. People forget in the early ‘90s, Colombia was basically a failed state. I mean, it was on the verge of a collapsed state, and they fought so hard to reclaim the country from the cartels. And just the thought that it could slip backwards due to political violence or drug violence or whatever in any way is just heartbreaking.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio
The US Secretary of State said that he hoped that next year’s elections would result in a precedent that would allow for the improvement of relations between the two countries.
“I think we have lost some ground here over the last three years,” since Colombia’s first leftist government took office, said Rubio.
In a response, Petro said: “I am not so erratic as to support a government that commits a genocide where 20,000 babies die.” on the social media platform X.
This critique comes after multiple such statements, like when Rubio indirectly held Colombian President Petro responsible for the attack on Miguel Uribe in June.
The exchange comes amid a visit of Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau, Senator Ruben Gallago (D) and Senator Bernie Moreno (R) to the South American country.
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