Trump’s Threat of Force Against Colombia Draws Rebuke From Its Leader

President Gustavo Petro said that he had asked the Colombian people to defend him “against any illegitimate violent act.” His defense minister emphasized that security cooperation with Washington continued.President Gustavo Petro of Colombia said he “asked the people to defend the president against any illegitimate violent act.”Credit...Sergio Yate/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesJan. 5, 2026, 9:55 a.m. ETPresident Trump’s comments suggesting possible military action against Colombia drew a sharp response on Monday from Colombian President Gustavo Petro, while the country’s defense minister sought to emphasize continued cooperation with Washington.After Mr. Trump said that U.S. military forces in the Caribbean could be used against Colombia and other countries, and accused Mr. Petro of being involved in cocaine production, Mr. Petro said: “If you detain a president whom much of my people want and respect, you will unleash the people’s jaguar.”In a lengthy post on X, Mr. Petro said that “every Colombian soldier has now received this order: any commander of the security forces who prefers the U.S. flag over the Colombian flag will be immediately removed from the institution.” He added that he had “asked the people to defend the president against any illegitimate violent act.”His comments came two days after the president of neighboring Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, was seized by U.S. forces and brought to New York City, where he and his wife were facing federal drug trafficking and other charges. Asked on Air Force One late Sunday if the U.S. military could conduct an operation against Colombia, Mr. Trump said, “It sounds good to me.” For more than four decades, Colombia has been a cornerstone of U.S. counternarcotics strategy abroad and a top ally in the region. But Mr. Trump has had a combative relationship with Mr. Petro, who has blocked deportation flights, stood on the streets of Manhattan urging U.S. soldiers to disobey orders, and accused the United States of “murder” in its boat strikes in the eastern Pacific.Colombia’s defense minister, Pedro Sánchez, declined to comment directly on Mr. Trump’s remarks in an interview on Monday with The New York Times. He said that he had remained in regular communication with the United States on counternarcotics efforts and that the two governments continue to have “a very close relationship.”Any possible U.S. military operation against Colombia, he said, had not come up in his recent conversations with the ranking U.S. diplomat in Bogotá or American military advisers.Mr. Sánchez added that Colombia’s information sharing with U.S. military and law enforcement agencies — including the Navy, Coast Guard, Drug Enforcement Administration, Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives — continued uninterrupted.Colombia’s armed forces, he said, remain focused on “protecting our sovereignty, our independence and our territorial integrity.”He added that Colombia has deployed more than 30,000 troops along its border with Venezuela to prepare for potential destabilization, a surge of migrants or confrontations with drug cartels that he said would “very likely feel increased pressure and attempt to harm the Colombian people.”He described the situation in Venezuela since Mr. Maduro’s ouster as relatively calm, but said he had not had contact with Venezuelan political or military officials in recent days.Genevieve Glatsky is a reporter for The Times, based in Bogotá, Colombia.SKIP