President Petro's clash with Trump backs Colombia into a corner

BOGOTÁ, Colombia — An "abhorrent" violation of Latin American sovereignty. An attack committed by "enslavers." A "spectacle of death" comparable to Nazi Germany's 1937 carpet bombing of Guernica, Spain. There is perhaps no world leader criticizing the Trump administration's attack on Venezuela as strongly as left-wing President Gustavo Petro of Colombia, historically Washington's most important ally in the region. For the past 30 years, the U.S. has worked closely with Colombia, the world's largest producer of cocaine, to arrest drug traffickers, fend off rebel groups and boost economic development in rural areas. But while other officials tread carefully, Colombia's outspoken president has seized on the U.S. capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro to escalate his spiraling war of words with President Donald Trump, who said a U.S. military operation in Colombia "sounds good to me." Answering a protest call issued by Petro, thousands of Colombians gathered in public squares across the country Wednesday "to defend national sovereignty" against Trump's military threats, chanting "Long live free and sovereign Colombia!" and waiting anxiously to hear what they expected would be Petro's latest scathing salvo in his clash with Trump. Instead, to everyone's surprise, the Colombian president offered an olive branch to the man who has repeatedly called him a drug kingpin, despite a lack of evidence. "I had one speech prepared for today, but I have to give another one," Petro told the crowd in Colombia's capital of Bogotá. "The first speech was quite harsh. I had to change it." Just minutes earlier, Petro said, he had held a friendly call with Trump, and explained that his only connection to drug trafficking was his fierce commitment to fighting against it. "I asked (Trump) to re-establish direct communication between our governments," Petro said. "If there is no dialogue, there will be war." Trump released a statement on social media, calling it a "Great Honor" to speak with Petro. He even invited his fiercest critic to the White House, revealing what he's shown in the past to be a dramatic capacity to swiftly change tack. "I appreciated his call and tone, and look forward to meeting him in the near future," Trump wrote of Petro. The sudden détente between the irascible foes revealed that, for all their differences, Petro and Trump share a willingness to side with an ideological rival if deemed to be in their best interest. For Colombia, the U.S. remains key to the military's fight against leftist guerrillas and drug traffickers. Washington has provided Bogotá with roughly $14 billion in the last two decades. For the U.S., Colombia remains the cornerstone of its counternarcotics strategy abroad, providing crucial intelligence used to interdict drugs in the Caribbean. "The Colombians are extremely effective in taking advantage of their contacts in Washington, on the Hill and elsewhere, and the private sector is mobilized," said Michael Shifter, a Latin America expert at the Inter-American Dialogue think tank in Washington. "People were trying to tell Trump: 'Look, you can punish Petro to the extent possible, but you don't want to punish the country. That undermines the fight against drugs and is going to be harmful for the United States.'" Trump and Petro hate each other Petro has drawn Trump's ire for months. He turned back U.S. military deportation flights, urged American soldiers to disobey Trump during a pro-Palestinian rally in New York, lambasted U.S. attacks on alleged drug vessels as "murder," and sparred with Trump over Israel's war in Gaza and his crackdown on immigration. Infuriated, Trump deployed language that he often used to describe Maduro, calling Petro a "lunatic" and an "international drug leader." He revoked Petro's U.S. visa and the visas of his top officials and diplomats; slapped sweeping sanctions on him, his relatives and his interior minister on drug-related grounds; vowed to end all U.S. aid to Colombia; and threatened punitive tariffs on Colombian exports. Thrilled by Maduro's ouster, Trump pushed the fight further in recent days. He called Petro a "sick man who likes making cocaine and selling it to the United States" and warned of a possible U.S. military operation on Colombian soil. Casting himself as a patriot defending national sovereignty from U.S. meddling, Petro convened emergency meetings before the United Nations and the Organization of American States. He galvanized nationwide protests Wednesday where banners read "The U.S. is the biggest threat to world peace." The former leftist guerrilla even threatened to take up arms against the U.S. to defend Colombia. Petro's high-stakes gambit put Colombia, long America's staunchest regional ally, in Trump's crosshairs and his government in a bind: how to reap the political rewards of standing up to Washington just months before a presidential election without jeopardizing crucial security assistance or goading Trump into making good on his threat to invade. Petro plays the fight to his advantage Frustrated with congressional resistance to his contentious reforms, failing to fulfill his promise of "total peace" with armed groups and facing a series of electoral tests, Petro found in Trump the perfect foil as he fought for his legacy. "He wants this stage where he is the clearest adversary, rhetorically or politically, to the U.S.," said Sergio Guzman, a political risk analyst based in Bogotá. The constitution bars Petro from seeking another term in May's presidential vote. Still, as Colombia's first leftist president, Petro wants his coalition to retain power over the resurgent right that blames his unpopular government for rising crime. Colombia will also hold legislative elections in March. On Wednesday, Petro's strategy of playing David to Trump's Goliath seemed to have paid off. While Trump's threats struck Colombians as excessive enough to provoke widespread sympathy for Petro, the Colombian leader managed to de-escalate tensions before the verbal conflict could spill into a military one and inflict irreparable damage to the country's most vital security partnership. "The priority is peace, and peace is achieved through dialogue," Petro told protesters after his conversation with Trump. "Colombia can sleep soundly." Alarm was growing in Colombia over Trump's threats Experts doubted the likelihood of a U.S. military operation against Petro who, unlike Maduro, was democratically elected. But complicating the calculation for fretful Colombian officials were Trump's increasingly militaristic comments about Latin America that lumped Colombia in with Venezuela as a source of narcotics and immigrants in the U.S. "Whereas the Colombian institutions still maintain cooperation and have a lot to lose, Petro personally felt like that bridge has already burned," said Elizabeth Dickinson, a senior analyst at the International Crisis Group. As Petro used his social media bully pulpit to hammer at Trump this week, his interior and justice ministers scrambled to reassure U.S. intelligence agencies that Colombia would "continue to coordinate and cooperate in the fight against drug trafficking," the government said. Defense Minister Pedro Sánchez also rushed to put out the fire, declaring this week a "golden moment" for the U.S. and Colombia to move away from confrontation. In perhaps the most serious warning yet, Foreign Minister Rosa Villavicencio told reporters Tuesday that even as Colombia sought to resolve tensions diplomatically, authorities were preparing for "the possibility of aggression against our country by the United States." "For this, we have a highly trained, very well prepared army," she said. After all, it has long received training from the U.S. Rather than readying for war, Villavicencio late Wednesday found herself preparing for a trip to Washington to set up Petro's White House visit. But first, authorities pointed out, she needed a U.S. visa.