Colombian Defense Minister Pedro Sánchez Suárez stated this Sunday that criminals will benefit from U.S. President Donald Trump's announcement that he will cut off financial aid to Colombia due to its alleged inaction in the fight against drug trafficking.
"When international relations are fractured, when international cooperation is fractured, then it gives criminals space to flourish," the minister said in statements to the public television channel RTVC. The defense minister stated thatthere is no country in the world that fights drug traffickingwith total firmness and at a very high cost in terms of lives like Colombia," and that is why he considered Trump's statement against Petro today to be "disrespectful."
In a message on the Truth Social network, Trump referred to Petro as"a drug trafficking leader who encourages the mass production of drugs, in both large and small fields, throughout Colombia" and said that "he does nothing" against drugs "despite large-scale payments and subsidies from the U.S.."
"As of today, these payments, or any other form of payment or subsidy, will cease to be made to Colombia. The purpose of this drug production is the massive sale of products to the United States, causing death, destruction and havoc", the US president added.
Colombia's Effort Against Drugs The Colombian Defense Minister, on the other hand, considered Petro to be"a president who has the absolute conviction to neutralize drug trafficking, to eradicate it" a purpose for which he has the support of the Military and Police Forces, of whom he said they have an"ironclad commitment" in which even "men and women who have fought this cancer have lost their lives so that it does not reach consumers".
Trump's message does not make clear what aid Washington will cut to Colombia, but it is estimated that assistance for the fight against drugs to the country amounts to about 400 million dollars annually. Petro responded today that"Trump is deceived by (sic) his lodges and advisors" when they consider him "a leader of drug trafficking," because throughout his career, he said, he has done nothing but denounce the ties between politicians and drug traffickers."I do not do business (sic), like you, I am a socialist, I believe in aid and the common good and in the common goods of humanity, the greatest of all: life, put in danger for your oil. If I am not a businessman, much less a drug trafficker, in my heart there is no greed," Petro responded today in another message on X directed at Trump. The 2024 annual report of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) indicated that coca crops in Colombia reached a record 253,000 hectares in 2023, and cocaine production soared by 53%, reaching 2,600 tons.
However, Petro has been repeating for weeks that under his government"the growth rate of coca leaf crops has been reduced to almost zero", in response to the decision of the Trump administration, on September 15, to remove Colombia from the list of countries that are producing results in the fight against drugs.
The Colombian president, who today accused"Mr. Trump" of being "rude and ignorant toward Colombia," has intensified his criticism of the White House resident since, last August, he ordered a military deployment in the Caribbean, near Venezuelan waters, supposedly to combat drug trafficking. This Saturday, Petro asked the Attorney General's Office to"act immediately" in the face of the possibility that an alleged drug boat attacked by the U.S. on September 16 in the Caribbean Sea was Colombian, and accused that country of"murder" for the death of a fisherman who was doing his job, whom he identified as"Alejandro Carranza, who has not returned home" in the city of Santa Marta.
