‘Drug leader’: Trump takes on Colombian Prez

Florida: President Donald Trump said Sunday he would slash US funding to Colombia because the country’s leader “does nothing to stop” drug production, in what is the latest sign of friction between Washington and one of its closest allies in Latin America.

In a social media post, Trump referred to Colombian President Gustavo Petro as “an illegal drug dealer” who is “low rated and very unpopular.” He warned that Petro “better close up” drug operations “or the United States will close them up for him, and it won’t be done nicely.”Trump, while at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, wrote on his Truth Social platform that Petro is “strongly encouraging the massive production of drugs, in big and small fields” across Colombia, which the Republican president initially misspelled as Columbia before deleting his post and replacing it the correct spelling of the country. “Petro does nothing to stop it, despite large scale payments and subsidies from the USA that are nothing more than a long term rip off of America,” Trump said. “AS OF TODAY, THESE PAYMENTS, OR ANY OTHER FORM OF PAYMENT, OR SUBSIDIES, WILL NO LONGER BE MADE TO COLOMBIA,” Trump said. He also said Petro had “a fresh mouth toward America.”

US says Colombia is failing to cooperate in the drug war for first time in nearly 30 years

Earlier Sunday, Petro accused the U.S. government of assassination and demanded answers after the latest American strike in Caribbean waters. The U.S. said on Saturday it was repatriating to Colombia and Ecuador two survivors from that attack, the sixth since early September. In September, the Trump administration accused Colombia of failing to cooperate in the drug war.