President Donald Trump will meet with Colombian President Gustavo Petro on Tuesday after a year of exchanging insults and threats over the American president’s aggressive foreign policy in Latin America and Bogotá’s drug war.
Petro’s February 3 visit to the White House in Washington, D.C., came just one month after the United States abducted Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in a surprise armed attack on Caracas.
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Colombian leaders are likely seeking to manage diplomatic tensions with the United States, which have been in turmoil since President Trump began his second term last year.
Petro, a 65-year-old leftist, has been a vocal critic of President Trump’s foreign policy and recent military operations in the Caribbean, as well as Israel’s war in Gaza, a touchy subject for the US president.
Moods flared again last month when President Trump threatened a military attack on Colombia, which is said to be flooding the United States with illegal drugs.
Has their relationship always been frosty?
No. After Colombia gained independence from Spain in 1819, the United States was one of the first countries to recognize Colombia’s independence in 1822 and established a diplomatic mission to Colombia in 1823.
A year later, the two countries signed a series of treaties focused on peace, navigation and commerce, according to U.S. government archives.
Since then, the two countries have continued to cooperate on security and economic issues. However, these efforts were sometimes interrupted due to geopolitics and Colombia’s drug-trafficking war, such as during the Cold War.
Here is a timeline of key issues and events.
business interests are threatened
In 1928, American companies were operating in Colombia. But their profits were threatened when Colombian employees of the United Fruit Company in the United States protested, demanding better working conditions. In response to these protests, Colombian political parties also began to question Washington’s expanding role in Latin America.
According to the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), this period was also the period of the “banana wars” when Washington was busy overthrowing South American regimes in order to strengthen its business interests in the region.
A series of U.S. military interventions took place between 1898 and 1934 as Washington sought to expand its economic interests in the region until President Franklin D. Roosevelt introduced the Good Neighbor Policy, which promised not to invade or occupy Latin American countries or interfere in their internal affairs.
Emergence of FARC
The security relationship between the United States and Colombia deepened during World War II. In 1943, Colombia offered its territory to U.S. air and naval bases, and Washington provided training for Colombian soldiers.
According to the CFR, the United States increased military assistance to Colombia during a deadly conflict with armed rebels that lasted from 1948 to the mid-1950s and left more than 200,000 people dead. During the conflict, many independent armed groups emerged in the region, and the United States implemented a strategy known as Plan Lazo to strengthen civil defense networks.
In response, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) was formed by rebel leaders and engaged in large-scale violence and kidnappings, according to the CFR.
The FARC is inspired by communist values and controlled about 40 percent of the country in the late 1940s, according to CFR. The Washington government labeled it a “terrorist” organization and focused efforts to destabilize it.
The FARC ultimately signed a peace agreement with the Colombian government in 2016. In 2021, the group was removed from Washington’s list of foreign terrorist organizations.
war on drugs
As the FARC rose to power in Colombia, so too did the drug trade. Groups such as the Medellin Cartel and the Cali Cartel emerged in the country and regularly trafficked marijuana and cocaine into the United States.
In the face of rising drug-related deaths, the U.S. government spent more than $10 billion on counter-drug and security measures to support the Colombian government from 1999 to 2018, according to a report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office.
Former U.S. presidents such as Bill Clinton and George W. Bush have also launched anti-drug efforts to disrupt drug trafficking, destroy coca crops, and support alternative livelihoods for coca farmers in an effort to crush cartels.
President Trump’s first term, which began in 2017, was marked by new anti-drug efforts, but he also threatened to revoke Colombia’s status as a partner country if it did not take action against drug cartels.
Tensions between the United States and Colombia have subsided under former President Joe Biden, who focused on improving diplomatic relations by designating Colombia as a major non-NATO ally in 2022.
Cartels currently operate in a decentralized manner, and some have been designated terrorist organizations by the United States. In December 2025, the Trump administration designated Gulf Clan, Colombia’s largest illegal arms organization, which is also involved in drug trafficking, as a terrorist organization.
President Trump’s second term
In 2022, Petro was elected Colombia’s first left-wing president and took office promising to lead Colombia in a more just and environmentally friendly direction.
However, as President Trump arrived at the White House for his second term in January 2025, tensions with the United States rose again.
Since then, Petro has been a vocal critic of President Trump’s policies, particularly those related to Latin America.
Last year, the Trump administration launched a series of military attacks against Venezuelan fishing vessels suspected of carrying drugs in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific Ocean. The Trump administration has crashed dozens of ships but has not provided any evidence of drug trafficking. Petro called the invasion an “act of tyranny.”
Speaking at the United Nations General Assembly in September 2025, Petro said that “criminal proceedings must be initiated against officials of American origin, even if they include President Trump, the highest official who gave the order” in connection with the boat attack.
Petro also criticized US ally Israel’s war on Gaza at the United Nations General Assembly, calling on the US military to “disobey President Trump’s orders” and “obey the humanitarian order.”
Washington revoked Petro’s U.S. visa after he spoke at a pro-Palestinian march outside the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
A few weeks later, the Trump administration also imposed sanctions on Colombia’s president, who is scheduled to leave office after presidential elections in May.
In October, President Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform that the United States would no longer provide “payments or subsidies” to Colombia because Petro was “doing nothing” to stop drug production there.
Immediately after the abduction of Venezuela’s Maduro, President Trump told reporters on an Air Force plane that both Venezuela and Colombia were “very sick” and that the Bogotá government was run by “sick people who like to make cocaine and sell it to the United States.” “And he won’t be doing it for very long. I’m telling you,” Trump added.
Asked if this meant there would be a U.S. operation against Colombia, Trump said, “I think that’s a good thing.”
In response, Peter stated that he would “take up arms” for his country and promised to protect it.
But in an interview with Al Jazeera on January 9, Petro said the government was trying to maintain counter-drug cooperation with Washington, a softer tone after days of escalating rhetoric.
