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President Donald Trump said Colombia’s president could be targeted in the same way as Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro amid a growing rift between the two leaders over the export of illegal drugs to the United States and its military presence in the region.
Trump was speaking with reporters in the Oval Office when he was asked about Colombian President Gustavo Petro, who has been a vocal critic of U.S. military strikes on suspected drug smuggling vessels in the Caribbean.
Trump was asked whether he had spoken with Petro, whom he has called an “illegal drug dealer,” as he previously did with Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum.
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“He’s been fairly hostile to the United States,” Trump said. “I haven’t given him a lot of thought.
“He’s going to have himself some big problems if he doesn’t wise up,” he added. “He better wise up, or he’ll be next. I hope he’s listening. He’s going to be next.”
Trump noted that Colombia is a “major” drug producer and helps import narcotics into the U.S.
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Petro has been a fierce critic of Trump over the strikes in the Caribbean. In November, he called Trump a “barbarian,” days after ordering his country’s security forces to stop sharing intelligence with the U.S. until Washington halts its military operations in the region.
On Sunday, Petro said many of the people killed during the U.S. strikes were “poor fishermen, some who out of necessity make short cocaine trips for the narcos.”
He further criticized Trump for issuing a pardon to former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández, who was sentenced to 45 years last year for helping move tons of cocaine into the U.S.
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“The U.S. is mistaking its allies. Its allies cannot be the narcos,” Petro wrote.
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