In new statements about Colombia and the U.S. fight against drug trafficking, President Donald Trump said at the White House with journalists that “large cocaine factories” operate in Colombia and claimed that, if necessary, he would be willing to “destroy them personally.” His words, laden with the usual forcefulness of the U.S. president, come at a moment of maximum tension due to the military deployment in the Caribbean, off the Venezuelan coast.
The assertion by the U.S. leader, presented once again without details or verifiable evidence, came at an already sensitive moment for bilateral relations, marked by differences over anti-drug strategy and regional security approaches.
For the White House, the increase in illicit crops in South America continues to be a recurring argument to pressure producer countries. This time, however, the tone adopted by Trump returned to the harsher rhetoric that has characterized his interventions in international policy.
President Trump accuses Colombia of having cocaine factories
President Trump said yesterday, Monday, Nov. 17, that he would be willing to attack Mexico and Colombia in his war against drug trafficking. The U.S. president added before reporters that he would be “proud” to strike drug-manufacturing facilities in other countries, beyond Venezuela.
Trump, speaking emphatically, said that not only has he questioned in the past Colombia’s role in cocaine production but that he would be willing to intervene directly against what he calls “drug infrastructures.” In addition to Colombia, Mexico was also the target of this threat from the U.S. president.
“I’ve been talking with Mexico; they know where I stand, we are losing hundreds of thousands of people to drugs,” Trump said. “We know the addresses of every drug lord. … We know everything about each one of them. They are killing our people. That’s like a war. Would I do it? I’d be proud to do it,” he said in reference to a possible strike against these infrastructures in third countries.
Beyond Trump’s usual forceful statements, these remarks mark a new escalation in his administration’s approach to curbing the flow of drugs into the United States, after weeks of attacking ships that the government says were trafficking drugs, operations that have already caused more than 75 deaths in the Caribbean and the Pacific.
The response from Colombia’s Petro: figures that contrast with Trump’s narrative
In the face of these accusations, Colombia’s president, Gustavo Petro, did not remain silent. In an energetic response, the president reposted his government’s achievements in fighting cocaine production, highlighting that during his term more than 10,366 laboratories dedicated to drug manufacturing have been destroyed.
“How proud I must feel that in my government 10,366 cocaine-production laboratories have been destroyed. Rubio hasn’t told Trump, nobody tells him,” the Colombian president wrote last night on his account on the social network X, suggesting that Trump has not been fully informed about the work that has been carried out on the ground and raising criticism — as he has done before — of the U.S. president’s circle, personified in Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
Cómo me sentiré de orgulloso que en mi gobierno se han destruído 10.366 laboratorios de producción de cocaína. Rubio non
le ha contado a Trump, nadie le dice. https://t.co/FrkM1gaKzu— Gustavo Petro (@petrogustavo) November 17, 2025
Beyond the numbers, Petro emphasized the method behind his drug policy. Instead of relying exclusively on forced eradication, his government has promoted the voluntary substitution of crops — something that according to him has proved successful in some regions, especially in Cauca — by offering incentives to farmers to abandon coca cultivation and shift to legal alternatives.
According to Petro, this strategy has been effective in various regions historically punished by the violence of illegal armed groups and drug traffickers: The growth rate of coca hectares, which in 2022 had been 42%, fell to 9% in 2023 and was projected to reach just 3% in 2024.
Timeline of a distancing and near rupture between Colombia and the US
In recent months, President Donald Trump’s anti-drug program has undergone a notable intensification, escalating from tough rhetoric to concrete measures that have deeply strained his relationship with the government of Colombian President Gustavo Petro.
The escalation began when Trump publicly accused Petro of being “a drug-trafficking leader” who promotes massive cocaine production in Colombia, claiming that the country had become “a drug den.” This criticism came accompanied by a drastic measure: The immediate suspension of all U.S. financial aid to Colombia, including subsidies and previously agreed-upon payments.
But Trump did not stop at the economic threat. In a gesture that was more than symbolic and strategically reproachful, the United States “decertified” Colombia as a trustworthy partner in the drug war for the first time in nearly three decades, citing a “lack of cooperation” amid the sharp growth in cocaine production. Although Washington issued a waiver to avoid harsher sanctions, the action was another step in the palpable distancing from its traditional Latin American ally.
In turn, Trump has taken another step in his military-minded approach: He has deployed naval assets in the Caribbean to attack vessels suspected of transporting drugs, an offensive that has generated rejection from Bogota. Petro responded by ordering the suspension of intelligence sharing between his security agencies and the United States, in a gesture of protest over what he describes as “violations of sovereignty.”
This hardening of Trump’s anti-drug approach has turned the bilateral relationship with Colombia into an open political confrontation. Where there was once strategic cooperation, today there is ideological and diplomatic conflict. Petro denounces intervention, Trump demands results: The clash between the two has made clear that the fight against drugs is no longer just a security issue, but a political battleground with geopolitical repercussions.