US President Donald Trump had recently threatened the President of Colombia with military action. But now, after a few days of threatening, Trump has adopted a soft stance. Trump said on Wednesday that he had a phone conversation with Colombia's President Gustavo Petro and he has invited the leader of the South American country to visit the White House.
Trump wrote on his social media platform on Wednesday night, it was a great honor for me to talk to Colombia's President Gustavo Petro. He called and explained the situation regarding drugs and other differences between us. He further said, I appreciated his call and his tone and look forward to meeting him in the future. Trump told that this meeting will take place in the White House.
Trump has suddenly adopted a soft stance towards Colombia and this has come to light at a time when just a few days ago, after the American operation in Venezuela, Trump had said that Colombia is also very sick and accused Petro of making cocaine and selling it in America. After this he said, he is not going to do this for long, let me tell you this.
When he was asked whether US intervention was possible, Trump replied, "It seems fine to me."
Protests started in the country after America threatened Colombia. Thousands of people had come out on the streets. Meanwhile, while addressing thousands of people on Wednesday, President Gustavo Petro said that he talked to Donald Trump for about an hour.
“I spoke on two issues—Venezuela and drug trafficking,” he told the crowd in downtown Bogota. Petro told people that some of the leaders of Colombia, who are alleged to be involved in narco-trafficking, misled the US President about Petro's record in order to turn Trump against him. He said, these people are responsible for this crisis.
Trump's sudden adoption of a soft stance towards Petro is also surprising because the President of Colombia had described the US action in Venezuela as a disgusting violation of the sovereignty of Latin America. He had also said that this action was taken by the enslavers and termed it a spectacle of death.
Colombia has long been one of the US's strongest allies in Latin America and is considered a key pillar of Washington's anti-narcotics strategy abroad. The United States and Colombia have been working together for three decades—to arrest drug traffickers, combat rebel groups, and promote economic development in rural areas of Colombia, the world's largest cocaine producer.
Despite this, tensions between the US and Colombia had been rising for several months before Trump's conciliatory post. The Trump administration in October imposed sanctions on Petro, his family and a member of his government, accusing them of involvement in the global drug trade. Colombia is considered the center of the world's cocaine trade.
Trump launched a months-long campaign to pressure Venezuelan President Maduro, ordering dozens of deadly attacks on alleged drug smuggling boats sailing from Venezuela in the Caribbean Sea. Later, the scope of these operations was expanded and suspicious ships coming from Colombia in the eastern Pacific Ocean were also targeted.
In September the US added Colombia—the largest recipient of US aid in the region—to its list of countries not cooperating in the drug war for the first time in nearly 30 years. Due to this decision, American aid to Colombia was drastically cut.
