BY Rosemary
President Donald Trump met with Colombian President Gustavo Petro at the White House on Tuesday, marking a striking turn in a relationship that had been marked only weeks earlier by public insults, sanctions and threats of U.S. military action against the South American nation.
The roughly two-hour meeting focused on regional security and counternarcotics cooperation, according to U.S. officials, and followed a period of escalating tension in which Trump accused Petro of allowing cocaine to flood into the United States and warned that Colombia could face consequences similar to those imposed on Venezuela. Trump now says the Colombian leader has shown greater willingness to work with his administration following a recent U.S. operation targeting Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro.
“Somehow after the Venezuelan raid, he became very nice,” Trump told reporters on the eve of the visit. “He changed his attitude very much.”
Public gestures after the meeting suggested a warmer tone, at least on the surface. Petro posted a photograph on social media of Trump’s book The Art of the Deal, which bore a handwritten inscription from the president reading, “You are great.” Writing in Spanish, Petro struck an ironic note, saying he was unsure what Trump meant because he did not “understand English very well.”
Despite the cordial symbolism, lingering distrust between the two leaders hovered over the talks. Petro, a leftist former guerrilla and longtime critic of U.S. policy in Latin America, has continued in recent days to publicly challenge Trump, accusing him of complicity in civilian deaths in Gaza and describing the U.S. operation to seize Maduro as a kidnapping. Ahead of his departure for Washington, Petro even urged Colombians to gather in the streets of Bogotá while the meeting was underway, underscoring the domestic political pressure surrounding his engagement with Trump.
Petro arrived in Washington accompanied by Foreign Relations Minister Rosa Yolanda Villavicencio, Defense Minister Pedro Arnulfo Sánchez Suárez and Ambassador Daniel García-Peña. Trump was joined by Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Senator Bernie Moreno of Ohio, a Republican who was born in Colombia.
Just minutes before the meeting began, Petro released a video portraying himself as a politician who has spent decades confronting drug traffickers. Standing alongside one of his daughters and his granddaughter, he spoke emotionally about the toll that fight has taken on his family, saying several of his children live abroad because of threats tied to his anti-narcotics efforts. “We have truly suffered its effects directly,” Petro said.
The encounter highlighted how far U.S.–Colombia relations have shifted in a short period of time. For decades, Colombia has been one of Washington’s closest partners in the hemisphere, cooperating closely on counterinsurgency, drug enforcement and economic development. The United States has poured billions of dollars into security assistance over the past 30 years, and Colombia holds the status of a major non-NATO ally.
That partnership has frayed sharply under Trump. His administration has dramatically expanded military operations targeting suspected drug-smuggling vessels in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific, operations that have resulted in at least 126 deaths across 36 known strikes. Petro has criticized the campaign as excessive and destabilizing.
In October, tensions spiked further when the Trump administration announced sanctions against Petro, members of his family and a senior cabinet minister, accusing them of links to the global drug trade. Those measures, imposed by the Treasury Department, targeted Petro; his wife, Verónica Alcocer; his son, Nicolás Fernando Petro Burgos; and Interior Minister Armando Alberto Benedetti. The sanctions had to be temporarily waived to allow Petro to travel to Washington for this week’s meeting.
The punitive steps followed a September decision by Washington to place Colombia on a list of countries deemed uncooperative in the fight against drugs, the first time Colombia had received such a designation in three decades.
Relations deteriorated further last month after a U.S. operation to capture Maduro and his wife to face federal drug conspiracy charges. Petro forcefully condemned the move, warning it set a dangerous precedent. In the aftermath of Maduro’s removal, Trump publicly suggested Petro himself could be targeted next, describing Colombia as being “run by a sick man who likes making cocaine and selling it to the United States.”
Yet the tone shifted again after an hourlong phone call between the two leaders days later. Trump said Petro had explained Colombia’s drug challenges and other disputes, and soon after extended an invitation to visit the White House.
Petro appeared eager to use the meeting to outline Colombia’s counternarcotics strategy and to repair the strained relationship. Colombian officials said he arrived bearing diplomatic gifts, including a traditional Wounaan indigenous basket from the Chocó region for Trump and a handmade gown created by indigenous artisans from Nariño for first lady Melania Trump.
Still, the visit departed from typical White House protocol. Trump did not greet Petro publicly at the North Portico or pose for photographs with him before the press, a customary moment for visiting foreign leaders. Instead, Petro entered through a side entrance along West Executive Avenue shortly before the meeting began. The two leaders also did not make joint remarks to reporters either before or after their talks.
As Petro prepared to address the press later at the Colombian Embassy, the meeting underscored both the volatility and the pragmatism shaping U.S.–Colombia relations. While sharp rhetoric and punitive measures have defined recent weeks, both sides now appear to be testing whether cooperation on drugs and regional security can prevail over ideology and personal animosity.
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