US President Donald Trump has said he will meet his Colombian counterpart Gustavo Petro at the White House in the “near future”, just days after saying an operation targeting Colombia “sounds good”.
The US seized the president of neighbouring Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, in a raid on Caracas on Saturday night.
Venezuelan Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello said on Wednesday the death toll in the raid was substantially higher than initially reported, with more than 100 people killed.
Local media had previously reported that 23 Venezuelan and 32 Cuban soldiers died when US forces stormed Maduro’s compound.
During a call with Trump, Petro explained “the situation of drugs and other disagreements”, the US president said, adding he appreciated the Colombian president’s “tone”. Earlier this week, Trump had issued a warning to Petro, telling him to “watch his ass”.
Colombia is a key hub for the region’s drug trade – most notably cocaine – as well as having substantial oil reserves. It is also a major producer of gold, silver, emeralds, platinum and coal.
The US has said it will control sales of Venezuelan oil “indefinitely” as it prepares to roll back restrictions on the country’s crude in global markets, according to the White House.
Speaking aboard Air Force One following the operation in Venezuela, Trump described Petro as a “sick man who likes making cocaine and selling it to the United States”.
Trump added: “He’s not going to be doing it for very long.”
In response, Petro warned that Colombia would “take up arms” if the US launched any military action against his country.
“If you detain a president whom much of my people want and respect, you will unleash the people’s jaguar,” Petro wrote on X.
But writing on his Truth Social platform late on Wednesday, Trump described his conversation with Petro as a “Great Honor”, and said US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and his Colombian counterpart would make arrangements for Petro to travel to Washington.
The US imposed sanctions on Petro in October, saying he was failing to curb drug trafficking and was allowing cartels to “flourish”.
At the time, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that since Petro came to power in 2022, cocaine production in Colombia had “exploded to the highest rate in decades, flooding the United States and poisoning Americans”.
Petro responded he had been fighting drug trafficking “for decades” and that his administration had stemmed the growth of coca crops.
Like Venezuela, Colombia is home to substantial oil reserves.
Meanwhile, Venezuela’s interim president Delcy Rodríguez said the US action to depose Maduro was a “stain on our relations such as had never occurred in our history”.
But she added: “Venezuela is open to energy relations where all parties benefit.”
