The president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, spoke out this Sunday through his X account, after the harsh statements of the US president, Donald Trump, who accused him of promoting drug production and announced the suspension of US aid to the country.
In his message, Petro assured that Trump “is deceived by his lodges and advisors” and recalled that it was he himself who, in the 21st century, confronted drug trafficking and discovered his relations with Colombian political power. “I recommend that Trump read Colombia well and determine where the drug traffickers are and where the Democrats are,” the president wrote.
The Colombian president defended the historical relationship between both countries: “Mr. Trump, Colombia has never been rude to the United States; on the contrary, it has loved its culture very much. But you are rude and ignorant towards Colombia.” Petro even recommended that the American president read One Hundred Years of Solitude, trusting that he could “learn something from loneliness.”
Mr. Trump, Colombia has never been rude to the United States, on the contrary, it has loved its culture very much.
But you are rude and ignorant about Colombia. Read, as if he did, his chargé d’affaires in Colombia, One Hundred Years of Solitude, and assured him that he will learn something from loneliness.
I…
— Gustavo Petro (@petrogustavo) October 19, 2025
In his publication, Petro also referred to his political and personal convictions, differentiating himself from Trump’s business vision: “I do not do business, like you; I am a socialist, I believe in aid and the common good and in the common goods of humanity, the greatest of all: life, endangered by its oil.”
Gustavo Petro assured that greed distances him from drug trafficking and business: “If I am not a businessman, much less a drug trafficker, in my heart there is no greed. I could never understand greed. A gangster is a human being who condenses the best of capitalism: greed, and I am the opposite, a lover of life and, therefore, a millennial warrior of life. Greed flees us, because life is more powerful.”
Petro’s intervention occurs in a context of growing diplomatic tension between Bogotá and Washington, after Trump’s accusations about drug production in Colombia.