Donald Trump is due to meet Colombian President Gustavo Petro on Tuesday after exchanging insults and threats over the United States president’s aggressive foreign policies in Latin America and Bogota’s war on drugs.
Petro’s visit to the White House in Washington DC on February 3 comes a month after the US. Abduction Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in an armed attack in Caracas.
Recommended stories
3 List of itemsEnd of list
Colombia’s leaders will likely try to resolve diplomatic tensions with the United States, which have been fraught since Trump began his second term last year.
The 65-year-old leftist Petro has been an outspoken critic of Trump’s foreign policies and recent military operations in the Caribbean Sea, as well as Israel’s war on Gaza – a thorny issue for the US president.
Last month, anger flared again when Trump threatened to target Colombia Military Illegal drugs have allegedly flooded the US.
Is the relationship between the two always broken?
No. After Colombia gained independence from Spain in 1819, the United States was one of the first countries to recognize Colombia’s independence in 1822. In 1823 he established a diplomatic mission there.
A year later, the two nations signed treaties focusing on peace, navigation and commerce, Accordingly US Government Collection.
Since then, the two nations have continued to cooperate on security and economic matters. But these efforts have been interrupted at times, such as during the Cold War, by geopolitics and in relation to Colombia’s war on the drug trade.
Here is a timeline of key issues and events.
Commercial interests were at stake
In 1928, US businesses were operating in Colombia. But their interests were threatened when Colombian employees of America’s United Fruit Company went on strike demanding better working conditions. After the protests, political parties in Colombia questioned Washington’s expanding role in Latin America.
According to the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), this was also the period of the “Banana Wars” when Washington was busy overthrowing regimes in South America to shore up its commercial interests in the region.
A string of US military interventions by Washington took place between 1898 and 1934 as Washington sought to expand its economic interests in the region until President Franklin D. Roosevelt introduced the “Good Neighbor Policy” and pledged not to invade or occupy Latin American countries or interfere in their internal affairs.
The rise of the FARC
During World War II, the security relationship between the United States and Colombia deepened. In 1943, Colombia offered its territory for US air and naval bases while Washington trained Colombian soldiers.
According to the CFR, The United States provided military support to Colombia in a deadly conflict with armed rebel groups, which lasted from 1948 to the mid-1950s and killed more than 200,000 people. During the conflict, several independent armed groups emerged in the countryside, and the United States implemented a policy known as Plan Lazo to improve the civilian defense network.
In response, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) were formed by rebel leaders and engaged in widespread violence and kidnappings, according to the CFR.
The FARC claimed to be inspired by communist values and in the late 1940s, controlled about 40 percent of the country, according to the CFR. Washington labeled it a “terrorist” organization and sought to destabilize the group.
The FARC finally signed a peace deal with the Colombian government in 2016. In 2021, the group Removed from list From Washington’s list of foreign terrorist organizations.
War on Drugs
therefore FARC Colombia was booming, the drug trade was booming. Groups such as the Medellin Cartel and the Cali Cartel emerged in the country and regularly smuggled marijuana and cocaine into the US.
Faced with a rising number of drug-related deaths, the US government expenses Between 1999 and 2018, more than $10bn was spent on anti-drug and security efforts to aid the Colombian government, according to a US Government Accountability Office report.
Former US presidents, including Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, also launched anti-drug initiatives to disrupt drug trafficking, destroy coca crops, and support coca growers for alternative livelihoods.
Trump’s first term as president, which begins in 2017, has been marked by anti-renewal initiatives but he has threatened to decertify Colombia as a partner country if it does not crack down on its drug cartels.
Tensions between the US and Colombia eased under the leadership of former US President Joe Biden, who focused on improving diplomatic relations by designating Colombia as a major non-NATO ally in 2022.
Today, cartels operate in a decentralized manner and some have even been designated as terrorist organizations by the US. In December 2025, the Trump administration appointed Gulf clanColombia’s largest illegal arms group, which is also involved in drug trafficking as a terrorist organization.
Trump’s second term
In 2022, Petro was elected Colombia’s first left-wing president and took office in the presidential palace, promising to lead Colombia in a more just, environmentally friendly direction.
But when Trump entered the White House for a second term in January 2025, tensions with the US rose again.
Since then, Petro has been a vocal critic of Trump’s policies, particularly those related to Latin America.
Last year, the Trump administration launched military strikes against Venezuelan boats accused of carrying drugs in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific. The Trump administration has raided dozens of boats, but has provided no evidence that any are smuggling drugs. Petro called the aggression an “act of tyranny”.
In an address to the United Nations General Assembly in September 2025, Petro said that, in relation to the boat attacks, “it is necessary to initiate criminal proceedings against the authorities in the United States, even if it includes the highest authority who gave the order: President Trump”.
At the UNGA, Petro criticized US ally Israel’s war on Gaza and called on US forces to “disobey Trump’s orders” and “obey the dictates of humanity”.
Washington revoked Petro’s US visa after he spoke at a pro-Palestinian rally outside the UNGA in New York.
Weeks later, the Trump administration imposed sanctions on Colombia’s president, who is set to leave office after presidential elections in May.
In a post on his Truth social platform in October, Trump said that Petro is “doing nothing” to stop drug production (in his country) and therefore the US will no longer offer “payments or subsidies” to Colombia.
Shortly after Venezuela’s Maduro was kidnapped, Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One that both Venezuela and Colombia were “very sick” and that the government in Bogota was “run by a sick man who likes to make cocaine and sell it to the United States”. “And he’s not going to do it for a long time. I’m telling you,” Trump added.
Asked if he thought there would be US action against Colombia, Trump said, “I feel good.”
In response, Petro vowed to defend his country and said he would “take up arms” for his homeland.
in one the interview Speaking to Al Jazeera on January 9, however, Petro said his government was trying to maintain cooperation with Washington to combat narcotics, striking a softer tone after days of heightened rhetoric.