Colombian President Gustavo Petro has accused Donald Trump of being a ‘white slaveholder’ who is on track to ‘wipe out the human species’ after being humiliated by the US president in a dsipute over migrants.
It is the latest salvo in a bitter dispute that began when Petro blocked two US migrant deportation flights entering his country. But within hours, Trump threatened to hit Colombia with huge import traiffs and stop visa processing.
Petro immediately backed down on migrant flights, and even offered to use his own plane to fly deported migrants from the US to Colombia.
After the climbdown, Petro said: ‘You don’t like our freedom, okay. I don’t shake hands with white slavers.’
‘Overthrow me, President, and the Americas and humanity will respond… You can try to carry out a coup with your economic strength and your arrogance.’
President Trump had earlier imposed tariffs of 25 per cent on Colombian imports and an immediate visa revocation for government officials after the nation refused two planeloads of citizens who had been deported from the United States.
That tariff will be raised to 50 per cent in one week, the president warned.
But not even two hours after Trump announced his retaliatory efforts against Colombia, Petro offered his presidential plane to ‘facilitate the dignified return of the compatriots who were to arrive in the country this morning [yesterday] from deportation flights.’
However, now he’s launched a savage scorched earth attack on President Trump, further disintegrating the relationship between the two nations.
Petro warned Trump that his ‘greed’ could be the downfall of mankind in the brutal attack.
‘I don’t like your oil, Trump,’ he said, adding: ‘You’re going to wipe out the human species because of greed.’
Petro went on to tell Trump, publicly via X, that the ‘blockade does not scare me, because Colombia, besides being the country of beauty, is the heart of the world.’
In response to the tariff ‘on the fruits of our human labor’, Petro has imposed a tariff of 25 per cent – which will rise to 50 per cent – on US goods entering Colombia.
The tit-for-tat descended into nasty jabs at President Trump and, more broadly, the United States.
‘Trump, I don’t really like travelling to the US, it’s a bit boring… I confess that there are some commendable things.
‘I like going to the black neighbourhoods of Washington, where I saw an entire fight in the US capital between blacks and Latinos with barricades, which seemed like nonsense to me, because they should join.’
And Petro made it clear he would not back down, despite the White House insisting he did just that on the flight saga after he volunteered his own plane to pick up migrants.
‘You will never rule us,’ he said. ‘The warrior who rode our lands, shouting freedom, who is called Bolívar, opposes us. I will die in my law, I resisted torture and I resist you.
‘I don’t want slavers next to Colombia, we already had many and we freed ourselves. What I want next to Colombia are lovers of freedom’, Petro wrote.