Donald Trump announces cut in subsidies to Colombia and accuses the country's president of being a “drug leader”

US President Donald Trump on Sunday criticized his counterpart in Bogota, saying of Gustavo Petro that “he is an illegal drug leader who strongly encourages the massive production of drugs, on plantations large and small, throughout Colombia”, reports The Hill.

The US leader announced the cut of subsidies to Colombia.

“It has become the biggest deal in Colombia by far, and Petro is doing nothing to stop it, despite massive payments and subsidies from the US that are nothing more than a long-term scam on America. Starting today, these payments or any other form of payment or subsidy will no longer be made to Colombia,” Trump said Sunday in a post on his social media platform, Truth Social.

“The purpose of this drug production is to sell massive quantities of the product in the United States, causing death, destruction and mayhem,” the US president continued.

“Petro, a poorly rated and very unpopular leader (…), he better shut down these death plantations immediately, or the United States will shut them down for him, and it won't be done nicely,” added Donald Trump.

Colombia's president had accused the US of “assassination” on Saturday, referring to an attack in September against what his American counterpart described as “confirmed narco-terrorists”.

“U.S. government officials committed an assassination and violated our sovereignty in territorial waters. Fisherman Alejandro Carranza had no ties to drug trafficking, and his daily activity was fishing (…). We await an explanation from the U.S. government,” Petro said in a Spanish-language post on the X platform.

On September 15, Donald Trump said the US military had carried out a strike targeting “confirmed narco-terrorists from Venezuela” in international waters.