BOGOTA: Colombian President Gustavo Petro mentioned on Monday (Jan 5) he was able to “take up arms” within the face of threats from US counterpart Donald Trump, who over the weekend seized the chief of neighbouring Venezuela in a army strike.
Petro, a former guerrilla who for months been the goal of insults and threats from Trump, mentioned on X: “I swore to not contact a weapon once more … however for the homeland I’ll take up arms once more.”
Trump mentioned over the weekend that Petro ought to “watch his a**” and described Colombia’s first-ever leftist chief as “a sick man who likes making cocaine and promoting it to the US”.
Petro, whose M-19 city guerrilla group disarmed underneath a 1989 peace settlement, has traded barbs with Trump ever because the Republican’s return to the White Home in January.
Petro has been a vocal critic of the US army deployment within the Caribbean, which started with the blowing up of alleged drug boats, earlier than increasing to the seizure of Venezuelan oil tankers, then Saturday’s raid on Caracas to seize President Nicolas Maduro.
Trump accused the Colombian chief, with out offering proof, of being concerned in drug trafficking and hit him and his household with monetary sanctions.
Washington additionally eliminated Colombia from a listing of nations licensed as allies within the US conflict on medication.
In a protracted message on X, Petro insisted that his anti-narcotics coverage is sufficiently strong, however harassed there have been limits to how aggressive the army could be.
“If you happen to bomb even certainly one of these teams with out enough intelligence, you’ll kill many kids. If you happen to bomb peasants, 1000’s will flip into guerrillas within the mountains. And for those who detain the president, whom a part of my folks love and respect, you’ll unleash the favored jaguar,” he wrote.
The Trump administration is near the right-wing opposition in Colombia, which has excessive hopes of profitable legislative and presidential elections this yr.
