WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump suddenly changed his tone on Colombian President Gustavo Petro on Wednesday, saying they had had a friendly phone conversation and that he even invited the South American leader to the White House.
“I had the great honor of speaking with Colombian President Gustavo Petro as he called to explain our drug situation and other differences,” Trump posted on the social media site. “I appreciated his call and tone and look forward to meeting him in the near future.”
The upcoming meeting will be held at the White House, he wrote.
Just days ago, Trump said “Colombia is also very sick” and accused Petro of “making cocaine and selling it to the United States” after the United States moved to oust Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro over the weekend.
In comments to reporters aboard Air Force One on Sunday, Trump added of Petro, “Let me tell you, he’s not going to do it for long.” Asked about the possibility of U.S. intervention, Trump responded: “Sounds good to me.”
Later on Wednesday, Petro said he spoke to Trump for about an hour while addressing thousands of protesters he had mobilized against the U.S. military threat.
“I talked about two things: Venezuela and drug trafficking,” he told the crowd in central Bogota, minutes after demonstrators chanted slogans against the United States at Petro’s request.
Petro explained to the audience that Colombian politicians allegedly linked to drug trafficking had misled the U.S. president about Petro’s record, thereby turning Trump against him.
“Those (people) are responsible for the crisis that erupted between the United States and Colombia – let’s call it a diplomatic crisis for now, call it a verbal crisis for now,” he said.
Trump’s sudden enthusiasm for oil companies is particularly surprising now that Colombia’s president has called U.S. actions in Venezuela an “abhorrent” violation of Latin American sovereignty. He also suggested it was the work of “slave owners” and constituted a “spectacle of death” comparable to Nazi Germany’s 1937 carpet bombing of Guernica, Spain.
Colombia has long been one of the United States’ staunchest Latin American allies and a pillar of Washington’s overseas counter-narcotics strategy. For three decades, the United States has worked closely with Colombia, the world’s largest producer of cocaine, to arrest drug traffickers, fight off rebel groups and boost economic development in rural areas.
Still, tensions between the United States and Colombia had been rising for months before Trump’s conciliatory remarks.
The Trump administration imposed sanctions on Petro, his family and members of his administration in October for their alleged involvement in the global drug trade. Colombia is considered the center of the world’s cocaine trade.
Trump began a months-long pressure campaign against Maduro by ordering dozens of deadly attacks on suspected drug-smuggling vessels sailing from Venezuela in the Caribbean. He eventually expanded his operations to include suspicious ships from Colombia in the eastern Pacific.
In September, the United States added Colombia, the largest recipient of U.S. aid in the region, to a list of countries that have failed to cooperate in the war on drugs for the first time in nearly 30 years. The designation led to significant cuts in U.S. aid to the country.
“He has cocaine plants and cocaine plants,” Trump said Sunday of oil companies. “He won’t do it.”
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Associated Press writer Isabel Debray in Buenos Aires, Argentina, contributed to this report.
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This story has been updated to correct the spelling of the Colombian president’s name.