Trump Accuses Colombian President of Inaction on Drugs, Announces Cuts to U.S. Funding for Colombia

Washington, The Gulf Observer: U.S. President Donald Trump sharply criticized his Colombian counterpart, Gustavo Petro, on Sunday, accusing him of failing to curb drug production and announcing plans to cut U.S. funding to the South American country. The remarks mark a significant escalation in tensions between Washington and one of its closest regional allies.

In a social media post, Trump referred to President Petro as “an illegal drug dealer” who is “low rated and very unpopular,” warning that the Colombian leader “better close up” drug operations “or the United States will close them up for him, and it won’t be done nicely.”

The exchange followed Petro’s accusation earlier on Sunday that the U.S. government was responsible for the death of a Colombian citizen during a military strike on an alleged drug trafficking vessel on 16 September. The Colombian president identified the victim as Alejandro Carranza, a fisherman from the coastal city of Santa Marta, insisting that Carranza had no links to drug trafficking and that his boat was disabled and displaying a distress signal when it was hit.

“U.S. government officials have committed murder and violated our sovereignty in territorial waters,” Petro wrote on X. “The Colombian boat was adrift and had a distress signal on, with one engine up. We await explanations from the U.S. government.”

Petro said he had notified Colombia’s attorney general’s office and called for immediate legal action both domestically and in U.S. courts. He continued posting a series of messages demanding accountability and condemning what he described as an unlawful strike.

Trump, in turn, shared a video on his Truth Social platform purportedly showing a recent U.S. military strike on a submarine in the Caribbean suspected of carrying narcotics. The footage depicts explosions hitting a vessel partially submerged in the ocean.

According to Trump, the strike, conducted on Thursday, destroyed a “very large drug-carrying submarine” and resulted in the deaths of two individuals, while two survivors—identified as nationals of Ecuador and Colombia—were taken into custody and repatriated.

“It was my great honor to destroy a very large DRUG-CARRYING SUBMARINE that was navigating towards the United States on a well-known narcotrafficking transit route,” Trump wrote, claiming that U.S. intelligence confirmed the vessel was transporting fentanyl and other illegal drugs.

Petro later confirmed that the Colombian survivor detained aboard what he termed a “narco submarine” had returned home, adding that he would face prosecution in accordance with national law. Ecuador’s Ministry of the Interior also confirmed the safe return of its citizen, Andrés Fernando Tufiño Chila, noting that prosecutors found no evidence linking him to criminal activity within Ecuadorian territory.

Trump’s announcement brings the total number of fatalities resulting from U.S. military operations targeting suspected drug-trafficking vessels in the region to at least 29. The U.S. president has justified these operations by asserting that the United States is engaged in an “armed conflict” with drug cartels, invoking the same legal framework used by the George W. Bush administration during the post-9/11 “war on terror.”

Under this approach, the Trump administration is treating suspected narcotics traffickers as enemy combatants, asserting the right to detain or eliminate them using military force as part of a broader campaign against transnational organized crime.