President Gustavo Petro recalled Colombia’s ambassador from the United States and threatened to repeal the countries’ unpopular free trade agreement (FTA).
In a post on social media platform X, Petro said that US President Donald Trump’s decision to impose 10% tariffs on all trade was in violation of the trade agreement “that put Colombia under control of the US.”
As Trump says, we are out of control, it’s true. The only real control over a democracy is not exercised by foreigners who hate migrants and hate Latinos, it is exercised by the people themselves. Trump does not control Colombia, he obeys only the people of Colombia and Latin American, if he wants to.
President Gustavo Petro
According to the president, the Colombian government “has maintained the FTA clauses that survive because we felt like it, but the Trade Ministry has the not yet signed decrees with a Colombian position in defense of national labor and the life of humanity.”
Petro said that the government and his ambassador to the US would “formulate the most intelligent Colombian response” to Trump’s “irrational threat” to impose tariffs on Colombian imports.
In a second post, the president proposed to negotiate a new agreement that would strengthen Colombia’s rural economy and incentivize farmers to grow legal crops instead of coca, the base ingredient of cocaine.
Petro additionally proposed a deal that would legalize marihuana and force the US Government to end prohibition and combat drug consumption.
The president also threatened to repeal the US-Colombia FTA in September as tensions over the US Government’s support for a genocide in Palestine and deadly strikes on alleged drug trafficking vessels in the Caribbean Sea began to escalate.
The situation escalated even further over the weekend after Petro accused the US of invading Colombian waters to assassinate a fisherman whose boat had apparently gone adrift.
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