Colombia president fears Trump could launch army motion as he denounces US ‘Nazi brigades’
Gustavo Petro slammed Trump’s tough actions on immigration and crime and added that the US is acting like an ’empire’ in danger of cutting itself off from the rest of the world
Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro has sparked fears of war after warning there is now a “real threat” of military action from what he dubbed Trump’s ‘Nazi brigades’.
In a furious rant, Petro accused Washington of worryingly behaving like an out-of-control “empire”. He also warned that the country was heading for disaster by becoming completely “isolated” from the rest of the world.
During an explosive interview, the left-wing president went on to slam Donald Trump’s administration for acting like “Nazi brigades” after he had massively ramped up Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) recently in a bid to reduce crime and illegal immigration.
Petro’s words come days after the Orange Manbaby said an operation targeting Colombia “sounds good”, following America’s capture of Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro. He claimed he had a friendly phone call with Petro and gave him a bell “to explain the situation of drugs and other disagreements that we have had”.
Trump added in a post on Truth Social that he appreciated the Colombian president’s “tone” after he had earlier warned him to “watch his ass”. He had also previously said that “Colombia is very sick too”.
However, Petro clearly had different feelings about their chat and told the BBC that their call on Wednesday evening lasted less than an hour, “most of it taken up by me”, and focused on drug trafficking, Venezuela and US actions across Latin America.
Petro again pointed fingers at ICE, accusing agents of persecuting Latin Americans on the streets and even killing US citizens. “If this continues,” he said, “the United States won’t be an empire ruling the world – it will be an empire cut off from it.”
Petro added that for decades, the US has treated Latin America like its backyard, ignoring international law and acting as an empire. The leader also reckoned the US was just looking for wars all about “oil and coal” and claimed that “the Venezuelan issue is about this”.
The Orange Manbaby had earlier accused former guerrilla fighter Petro of “making cocaine and selling it to the United States”. Trump added: “He’s not going to be doing it very long, let me tell you.”
Asked over the weekend whether US intervention was possible, Trump replied: “Sounds good to me.” In response, Petro warned that Colombia would “take up arms” if the US military launched action against his country as it did in Venezuela.
“If you detain a president whom much of my people want and respect, you will unleash the people’s jaguar,” he said.
Despite the tensions between the two leaders, Trump made a U-turn by inviting Petro to the White House. He said US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and his Colombian counterpart would make arrangements for Petro to travel to Washington.
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