Remains defiant

Colombia's president remains defiant amid Trump's threats

“It's time to defend our national sovereignty,” he wrote Tuesday night on X.

By Gregory Svirnovskiy

Colombian President Gustavo Petro isn’t afraid of President Donald Trump’s insinuations that his country is next on the agenda for regime change in South America — at least according to his social media activity.

Over the last 24 hours, Petro has filled his X account with denunciations of Trump’s weekend attack on Venezuela, spirited proclamations about his country’s role in fighting the international drug trade and jingoistic expressions about Colombia’s readiness to face down any enemy.

“It’s time to defend our national sovereignty,” Petro wrote Tuesday night in a post on X.

Another post from roughly an hour earlier showed Simón Bolívar, the iconic military officer who freed multiple South American countries from Spanish rule, brandishing a saber in front of the Colombian flag and a map of the country. “Colombia is free and sovereign,” the image said.

The posts come just days after the U.S. military captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in a “large-scale strike” Saturday, flying him out of Caracas to face narco-terrorism and corruption charges. Aboard Air Force One on Sunday, Trump said Petro could be next.

“Colombia is very sick too — run by a sick man who likes making cocaine and sending it to the United States, and he’s not going to be doing it very long,” the president said.

The two sides have clashed before. Just days after Trump returned to office in January, he threatened to slap sky-high tariffs and visa restrictions on Bogotá after Petro turned away two flights full of detained Colombian migrants.

In September, the White House revoked Petro’s visa. And Trump has been far from silent in his desire to see the South American president removed from power soon. Petro is modern Colombia’s first-ever left-wing president.

Demonstrations are set to take place in public squares throughout Colombia on Wednesday afternoon.

“The entire government gathers to show their unity in defense of the president and the sacred principle of national sovereignty,” Petro wrote Tuesday on X. “To those who say the authorities go one way and I another, in terms of anti-narcotics politics there is ironclad unity.”