The president of the U.S., Donald Trump, issued a new threat against any nation that produces or traffics drugs to his country, including Colombia as one of the possible targets of potential military attacks. “If they produce drugs and sell them to Americans, they are subject to attacks,” he said.
With those words, he sowed fear of a military intervention — not only naval or aerial, but also ground — in sovereign territories, whenever Washington deems that drug trafficking is being sent to the U.S. from those countries. For Bogota, the accusation is not new, but just a few hours later, Colombian president Gustavo Petro responded forcefully on social media, defending his country’s sovereignty.
Trump threatens to target any nation that ships drugs to the US, Colombia included
Trump’s statements mark yet another escalation in his supposed “tough-on-drugs” strategy, and they curiously came yesterday, Tuesday, Dec. 2, when the release of former Honduran president Jose Orlando Hernandez was confirmed. He had been sentenced to 20 years in that country for drug trafficking and was pardoned by Trump.
Although in recent months U.S. forces have carried out attacks on suspicious vessels in the Caribbean and the Pacific — actions that, according to Washington, have neutralized international cartels and have caused more than 80 deaths — this new warning opens the door to broader operations, including incursions on foreign soil.
While the country debates alleged crimes against humanity by high-ranking officials, after reports emerged of orders to finish off possible survivors in attacks on supposed “narco-boats,” Trump indicated that his administration is willing to target not only already sanctioned countries such as Venezuela but also other nations in Latin America from where, according to him, drugs are exported to the United States. By doing so, he singled out Colombia, a country that has historically been an ally of Washington in the anti-drug fight but an important exporter of drugs to the world for 40 years.
The threat was not broad: The U.S. president referred to “countries linked to drug trafficking” and pointed to the alleged existence of cocaine factories in Colombia. “I’ve heard that Colombia produces cocaine. They have manufacturing plants. And then they sell it to us. … Anyone who does that and sells it to our country is subject to attacks,” he said.
Colombia’s Petro responds: ‘Do not threaten our sovereignty’
For his part, Colombian president Gustavo Petro, who has maintained tense relations with the U.S. government for months, warned Trump not to attack Colombia’s sovereignty.
“Do not threaten our sovereignty, because you will awaken the jaguar. Attacking our sovereignty is declaring war,” he wrote on his X account, and in the same comment extended an invitation to Trump to tour Colombia to see “how a cocaine laboratory is destroyed every 40 minutes” — a reference to the more than 18,400 labs seized during his administration — making it clear that, in his view, there are legitimate ways to fight drug trafficking that do not involve missiles or bombs.
“If there is one country that has helped stop thousands of tons of cocaine so that Americans do not consume it, it is Colombia,” he said, referring to the fight against drug production and distribution from the South American country, an issue that has strained Bogota–Washington relations due to the Petro government’s focus on targeting major traffickers rather than coca leaf growers.
In addition to the condemnation, his message carried a clear warning: Any foreign military intervention will be interpreted as a direct aggression, a declaration of war. With increasingly bellicose language on both sides, tensions remain high as the region awaits an announced ground intervention in Venezuela, despite diplomatic efforts.
Venga señor Trump a Colombia, lo invito, para que participe en la destrucción de los 9 laboratorios diarios que hacemos para que no llegue cocaína a EEUU.
Sin misiles he destruido en mi gobierno 18.400 laboratorios, venga conmigo y le enseño como se destruyen, un laboratorio… https://t.co/8WOKnclDK7
— Gustavo Petro (@petrogustavo) December 2, 2025
An uncertain and tense future that extends across the entire region
Donald Trump’s increasingly aggressive and belligerent rhetoric is creating a situation of maximum alert in Latin America. Although the United States has already demonstrated its ability to operate militarily in the region — through naval attacks and bombings of suspicious vessels — the possibility of ground operations, with incursions into sovereign countries, represents a radical shift with unpredictable consequences.
Beyond the demand for respect for sovereignty, the threatened countries are seeking support against these unilateral actions by President Donald Trump, who returned to the White House less than a year ago claiming he would not start any new wars and now has several active fronts in the Western Hemisphere.
Meanwhile, despite restraint in economic sanctions on Colombia, the threats made months ago against Nicolas Maduro now extend to a clearly democratic government — such as Colombia’s — with which Washington maintains deep differences over how and where the fight against drug trafficking should be focused.
Beyond the rhetoric, the direct threat against Colombia opens an unprecedented scenario, after the country has been the United States’ main ally for decades. For some analysts, Trump’s strategy seeks to influence the decisive 2026 elections in the South American nation, as has already happened in Argentina or Honduras, but for now, this pressure only provokes instability and opens up an uncertain future that, beyond politics, does not appear to have a clear objective — even less so in the loudly proclaimed supposed fight against drug trafficking, a commitment in which there is still much to be proven.