Source: Reuters
“U.S. President Donald Trump’s threat this week to slap [American buyers of goods from] Colombia with tariffs over its drug policy marked a sharp escalation in his feud with a country that has long been one of Washington’s closest Latin American allies. It was also a rejection of an established idea about countering the narcotics business: that free trade can make legitimate exports more attractive than drug trafficking. Trump’s latest comments marked a new low in relations between Washington and Bogota, which Trump accuses of being complicit in the illicit drug trade. ‘They don’t have a fight against drugs — they make drugs,’ Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One. Petro has objected to the U.S. military’s strikes against vessels in the Caribbean, which have killed dozens of people and inflamed tensions in the region. Many legal experts and human rights activists have also condemned the extraordinary series of military actions.” (10/22/25)