Trump Ceases Aid to Colombia
In what appears to be an escalation of his antagonism towards drug activity in the Caribbean and into northern South America, Trump turned his social media rantings toward President Petro and Colombia. As reported by the AP, Trump calls Colombia’s Petro an ‘illegal drug dealer’ and announces an end to US aid to the country.
President Donald Trump said Sunday he would slash U.S. 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.”
Here’s the original Truth Social posting, wherein he got his “Extort Countries” and “Extort Universities” files confused:
A corrected version was later posted.
From the linked AP piece:
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. At least 29 people have been killed in strikes that the U.S. has said are targeting alleged drug traffickers.
[…]
Petro said a Colombian man was killed in a Sept. 16 strike and identified him as Alejandro Carranza, a fisherman from the coastal town of Santa Marta. He said that Carranza has no ties to drug trafficking and that his boat was malfunctioning when it was hit.
“U.S. government officials have committed murder and violated our sovereignty in territorial waters,” Petro wrote on X. “The Colombian boat was adrift and had a distress signal on, with one engine up. We await explanations from the US government.”
Petro said that he has alerted the attorney general’s office and demanded that it act immediately to initiate legal proceedings internationally and in U.S. courts. He continued to post a flurry of messages into early Sunday about the killing.
Petro is the first left-leaning President in Colombia in a very, very long time, so he is less inclined to be as friendly to the US as his predecessors. Still, Colombia has been one of the US’s strongest allies in the region, and Petro’s term ends in less than a year (he is constitutionally barred from running for re-election). Trump is correct that Petro is unpopular, and I would expect it to be highly unlikely that his successor will come from a similar ideological space.
By the by, nothing shouts “I am not a King” the day after “No Kings Day” than sweeping, unilateral policy actions via decree. To be clear, I am not certain precisely which programs Trump is referencing, nor what his legal options are, given, you know, governing via social media.
And, again, noting that the details are sparse, the US gives a lot of that money to Colombia to do what the US wants it to do vis-à-vis the illicit narcotics trade. Withholding the money will simply mean that the Colombian government will do less of what the US wants, not more. There was a similar attempt to put the squeeze on Mexico some decades ago, but it didn’t work. By definition, if you are subsidizing an activity, you want that activity to continue, and the withdrawal of the subsidy means the thing you want done won’t happen. If it was going to happen without the subsidy, you wouldn’t have to subsidize it, now would you?
Also, if the Trump administration is going to engage in some kind of pressure on Venezuela, then antagonizing Colombia is not a smart move, if anything, because the US is going to want Colombian help dealing with the waves of migrants that would be generated by a US action against Venezuela.
I would note that I wouldn’t expect the Petro government to be on board with US actions against Venezuela, but there might be some grudging cooperation on humanitarian grounds to deal with refugees. But poking the Colombian president yet again makes that less likely.
But, of course, all of this is six-dimensional chess that I am sure I don’t understand.
Another day, another rant. Like attacks on other leaders, this will likely make Petro more popular in the short run. Likely, this was news to Rubio and he and DEA officials who are scrambling to figure out the probable effects on the current drug interdiction programs.
The other day in comments I said – joking – that if Trump managed to steal Venezuela’s oil – he’d go after Colombia next, if they had oil. Turns out they do have oil. I think the plan is to seize offshore oil fields and lease them to US firms, taking a big slice for ‘reparations,’ most of which will end up in Trump’s hands. This is what he learned from Vladimir Putin.
Good to have this studied assessment from the absolute arbiter of all things “low rated and mouthy.” Otherwise how would one know what to think of the world outside one’s immediate experience, but for Trump’s own guidance?
(What a dysfunctional, stunted mind we have occupying the White House, surrounded by likewise dysfunctional, stunted advisors. )
The manual pf Trumpian diplomacy:
“Just piss off everyone, everywhere, brag about it, and bask in the applause of MAGA for your macho kayfabe.
Every other country on the face of the planet will just put up with it.
Because reasons.”
@JohnSF: Then demand a Nobel Peace Prize.