Colombia’s Petro promises to defend homeland amid Trump threats

President criticizes Trump, calling US threats an undue interference in Colombian internal matters under international law.

Colombian President Gustavo Petro says he would “take up arms” for his country if necessary as the United States issues threats against him and his government.

In a social media post on Monday, Petro, a former leftist fighter, said any violent US intervention in Colombia, such as the kind carried out in Venezuela over the weekend, would provoke a response.

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“I swore not to touch a weapon again,” Petro said. “But for the homeland I will take up arms again.”

Petro has emerged as an outspoken critic of US President Donald Trump, who has threatened Colombia with possible military strikes in the name of combating drug trafficking.

The two leaders have frequently traded insults, but Trump’s threats have become increasingly hostile in recent days.

The US president said over the weekend that Petro should “watch his a**” after the abduction of Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro, an act widely considered illegal by scholars of international law. Speaking with reporters on Sunday, Trump said a similar operation against Petro’s government “sounds good to me”.

“Colombia is very sick, too, run by a sick man, who likes making cocaine and selling it to the United States, and he’s not going to be doing it very long,” Trump said.

Colombia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs denounced Trump’s comments as “an undue interference in the internal affairs of the country, against the norms of international law”.

Trump has accused Petro of facilitating the trafficking of drugs to the US, a claim for which there is no evidence and is firmly denied by Petro, who says his government has worked to combat drug production while taking steps away from the militarised approach of the war on drugs.

“I have enormous trust in my people,” Petro said. “And that is why I have asked the people to defend the president from any illegitimate violent act against him.”