Colombian President Gustavo Petro has vowed to “take up arms” in the event of a US attack.
His statement followed multiple threats from President Donald Trump in the wake of Saturday’s US attack on Venezuela and the abduction of its leader, Nicolas Maduro.
Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One on Sunday, the US president accused Petro of orchestrating the cocaine trade and hinted that he could soon also be removed. When asked if the US would launch a military operation against Colombia, Trump replied: “sounds good to me.”
In an X post on Monday, Petro promised to resist.
“Although I have not been a military man, I know about war and clandestinity. I swore not to touch a weapon again since the 1989 Peace Pact, but for the Homeland I will reluctantly take up arms again,” he said.
Prior to being elected Colombia’s first left-wing president in 2022, Petro was part of the M-19 communist guerrilla group, which agreed to lay down arms and join mainstream Colombian politics in the late 1980s.
According to Petro, he has cracked down on the cocaine trade in the country during his term.
“I stopped the growth of coca leaf crops and began a great voluntary crop substitution plan by the coca-growing peasant,” he said, arguing that his airstrikes against local cartels needed surgical precision to avoid killing children and peasants, so as not to swell the ranks of Colombian insurgency groups.
After Trump’s drug-trafficking accusations and the threat of military intervention, Petro said he demanded that every military officer “who prefers the flag of the US to the flag of Colombia” resign.
Following condemnation by Colombia and Cuba of the US attack on Venezuela, Trump also made a veiled threat against the Caribbean island, claiming that it “is ready to fall.”
Moscow has condemned the US “armed aggression” against Venezuela, and demanded that Washington release the country’s legally elected president and his wife.
