Colombia Recalls Its Ambassador To The U.S. Following Trump's Clash With President Petro

The Colombian government announced on Monday it is recalling its ambassador to the U.S. over Donald Trump's criticism of President Gustavo Petro, the country's foreign minister said.

Rosa Yolanda Villavicencio Mapy said Daniel Garcia-Peña is already in Bogota, and Petro will inform about "decisions made about it" shortly.

The announcement comes as the two presidents continue to clash after the Trump administration said it will impose tariffs on Colombian exports and cut financial assistance to the country.

Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One on his return to Washington from Mar-a-Lago, Trump said he would formally announce the new trade measures on Monday. He then accused Colombia of failing to combat drug production, calling the country "a drug manufacturing machine" and asserting that it "has the worst president they've ever had." "He's a lunatic."

Earlier, Trump labeled Petro "a drug-trafficking leader" who encourages mass coca cultivation and "does nothing to stop it despite large-scale U.S. payments and subsidies." He said those transfers would end immediately, writing, "As of today, these payments, or any other form of payment or subsidy, will no longer be made to Colombia."

On Friday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said that a U.S. operation destroyed a boat linked to Colombia's National Liberation Army (ELN), though he provided no evidence. The Colombian government has disputed those claims, saying the vessel carried civilians.

Petro responded on social media, rejecting Trump's accusations and defending his government's anti-narcotics policies. "Trying to promote peace in Colombia is not being a drug trafficker," he wrote, calling Trump "rude and ignorant toward Colombia" and asserting that he is "the main enemy of drugs" in his country.

Petro also claimed on Monday that the country's decades-long civil wars are a result of "cocaine consumption in the U.S.

In a lengthy social media post, Petro said that, in the fight against, drug-trafficking, "Colombia puts the money and the deaths, and the U.S. puts the consumption."

"The consumption in the U.S. and the growing consumption in Europe are responsible for 300,000 murders in Colombia and over a million deaths in Latin America," he added.

He went on to say call on Trump to remove tariffs recently imposed on Colombia to "strengthen lawful agricultural and agro-industrial production, invest in agrarian reform so farmers can move to fertile land close to the cities and don't go to the jungle to survive." And proposed to legalize marijuana exports "like any goods, given their exclusion as dangerous substance by the UN."