Colombia’s Foreign Minister Rosa Yolanda Villavicencio has warned that her country will respond militarily to any violation of its sovereignty, following threats from US President Donald Trump.
Villavicencio stressed at a press conference on Tuesday that under international law, countries have the right to defend themselves if attacked.
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“In the event of such an invasion, the military must protect the homeland and national sovereignty,” she said.
Her comments came as Latin America grapples with the aftermath of the U.S. military attack on Venezuela early Saturday morning, which resulted in dozens of deaths and the abduction of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores.
On Saturday, President Trump announced the attack, calling the Western Hemisphere his sphere of influence and urging caution in Latin America.
“We are reaffirming America’s power in a very powerful way locally,” Trump said, praising America’s “great advantage.”
He added that the military operation “should serve as a warning to those who threaten U.S. sovereignty or endanger American lives.”
Are Venezuela and Colombia parallel?
President Trump has claimed that Maduro was the head of a drug-trafficking network in Venezuela, a claim previously questioned by U.S. intelligence agencies, and has accused Maduro of causing thousands of overdose deaths in the United States.
On Sunday, while aboard Air Force One, President Trump compared Venezuela to neighboring Colombia, the world’s largest producer of cocaine.
“Venezuela is very sick. Colombia is very sick. It’s run by sick people who like to make cocaine and sell it to the United States,” Trump said, apparently referring to Colombian President Gustavo Petro. “He won’t be doing it for long, I’m telling you.”
One reporter asked, “So is there going to be a U.S. operation?” to which President Trump replied, “I think that’s a good thing.”
Petro’s government has long touted efforts to crack down on cocaine trafficking by destroying laboratories that produce it and blocking shipments.
Last November, Petro celebrated what the government called its biggest cocaine seizure in a decade, with 14 tons (worth about $388.9 million) seized upon arrival at the Pacific port of Buenaventura.
Despite President Trump’s claims to the contrary, there is no evidence that Petro himself is involved in drug trafficking.
But Mr. Petro and Mr. Trump have long been at loggerheads, with Mr. Petro criticizing the Republican leader’s hard-line immigration policies, support for Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza, and deadly attacks on boats in the Caribbean and Pacific Ocean.
President Trump took action against Petro, revoking the Colombian president’s U.S. visa in September and imposing sanctions in October.
escalating rhetoric
Petro is the first left-wing president to lead Colombia’s government, and his term ends in 2026.
He condemned the US attack on Venezuela and warned that Latin America needed to unite to avoid being treated as “servants and slaves” to foreign interests.
“The United States is the first country in human history to bomb a South American capital,” Petro wrote on Sunday.
“What a terrible difference that is. South Americans will remember it for generations. That wound will remain open for a long time.”
He then mentioned his time as a rebel fighter in his teens and 20s, participating in Colombia’s 60-year-old armed conflict. He suggested Colombia would take up arms again if faced with foreign attack.
“Since the 1989 peace agreement, I vowed never to touch a weapon again, but I will take up arms again for the sake of my country, even if I don’t want to,” Petro wrote on social media.
Villavicencio stressed in a statement that Colombia is tackling drug trafficking with a “rigorous, sacrilegious and comprehensive approach.”
He added on Tuesday that the ministry rejects any threats against Latin America’s sovereignty or Colombia’s democratically elected president.
“A crime against the president is a crime against our country and a disregard for all the democratic processes we have in place,” she said.
She is scheduled to meet with members of the U.S. State Department later in the day.
