Colombian President Gustavo Petro has issued a public challenge to US President Donald Trump following the US military operation in Venezuela. Petro strongly condemned the detention of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, saying: “Come and get me. I am waiting here.”
In a statement, Petro warned that if the United States carried out a bombing or attempted to capture Colombia’s popular president, the peasants would turn into thousands of guerrillas and the country would plunge into a terrible conflict. Petro, a former leftist guerrilla leader, claimed that although he had sworn not to take up arms, he would be forced to take up arms again if the needs of the motherland required it.
Earlier, Trump called Colombia a “sick country” regarding the Venezuela operation, accusing it of being involved in cocaine production and trafficking to the United States. He even commented that an operation against Colombia “sounds good” to him. This has brought tensions between the two countries to a peak.
Colombia’s Foreign Ministry rejected threats and the use of force, saying the country wants to maintain international relations based on dialogue and mutual respect.
It is worth noting that Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro had previously challenged Trump to “come and get me.” Recently, the White House released a video of the raid to detain Maduro and his wife, which went viral on social media.