Accusing Colombia’s government of promoting drug production, President Trump declared on Sunday that the United States would stop providing aid to the longtime ally.
Trump heightened tensions with Colombian President Gustavo Petro by referring to him as “an illegal drug leader” in a social media post. He declared that the United States would no longer give Colombia payments or subsidies and accused Petro of promoting the production of drugs.
Trump cuts aid to Columbia due to drugs
“It has become the biggest business in Colombia, by far, and Petro does nothing to stop it, despite large scale payments and subsidies from the USA that are nothing more than a long term rip off of America,” Trump wrote. “As of today, these payments, or any other form of payment, or subsidies, will no longer be made to Colombia,” Trump said.
The same day, U.S. forces killed three men on board another vessel they claimed was carrying drugs, according to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. Hegseth wrote in a post on X that U.S. forces struck the ship on Friday and linked it to the National Liberation Army (ELN), a Colombian guerrilla group involved in drug trafficking and operating in Venezuela.
Past aid given
In fiscal year 2025, the United States gave Colombia more than $200 million in foreign aid, according to data from the U.S. government. Washington has provided more than $14 billion in counterinsurgency and antidrug aid since the Clinton administration to combat trafficking networks and stop the production of coca, the crop used to make cocaine.
Trump’s remarks came after Petro claimed that the United States had killed Alejandro Carranza, a Colombian fisherman, in an airstrike in September. According to Petro, Carranza “didn’t have any ties with narcos and his daily activities were fishing.” He added that Carranza’s “boat was adrift, showing a distress signal, with one of its engines lifted.”
A day later, Trump replied that drug production was rampant across Colombia. “The purpose of this drug production is the sale of massive amounts of product into the United States, causing death, destruction, and havoc,” he wrote. “Petro, a low rated and very unpopular leader, with a fresh mouth toward America, better close up these killing fields immediately, or the United States will close them up for him, and it won’t be done nicely.”
Colombia continues to be the biggest producer of cocaine worldwide. By 2012, the nation had reduced its production of cocaine and coca with U.S. assistance, but then-President Juan Manuel Santos reversed course by banning aerial herbicide spraying. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime reports that since then, cocaine production and coca cultivation have both increased to all-time highs.
Featured Image Credit: alejandro Jovica; Pexels: Thank you!
