What Petro warned
Colombia’s leftist president said he may “take up arms” against the US.
Gustavo Petro spoke after threats from Donald Trump following Nicolás Maduro’s capture.
What Trump said
Petro posted after Trump accused him of “making cocaine and selling it to the United States.”
Trump also said a military option against Colombia “sounds good” to him.
Trump also called Petro a “sick man” on Air Force One on Sunday.
He said Petro “likes making cocaine” one day after saying “watch his a**.”
Petro’s response
Petro said he rejects any US strikes against drug traffickers in Colombia.
“If you bomb peasants, thousands of guerrillas will return in the mountains,” Petro said.
“And if you arrest the president whom a good part of my people want and respect, you will unleash the popular jaguar.”
He warned US strikes would kill children, despite record cocaine seizures by his government.
Petro said he would “return to arms” if attacks happen on Colombian territory.
“Although I have not been a military man, I know about war and clandestinely,” he said.
“I swore not to touch a weapon again since the 1989 Peace Pact, but for the Homeland I will take up arms again that I do not want.”
He also said he fired intelligence officers feeding the US “false information.”
“I am not illegitimate, nor am I a narco,” he added.
“I only have as assets my family home that I still pay for with my salary.”
Wider fallout after Maduro’s arrest
The exchange followed the capture of Maduro, 63, and Cilia Flores, 69.
Maduro appeared in a Manhattan federal court on Monday amid chaos outside.
Trump said the US was “in charge” of Venezuela after ousting Maduro.
He also pushed a US “takeover” during a transition, focused on oil.
“The oil companies are going to go in and rebuild their system,” Trump said.
“It was the greatest theft in the history of America.”