Trump Says He Would Be 'Proud' To Destroy 'Cocaine Factories In Colombia': 'Didn't Say I Would'

President Donald Trump said he would be "proud" to destroy "cocaine factories in Colombia" as his administration continues conducting strikes against alleged drug vessels in the Caribbean and the Eastern Pacific

Speaking at the Oval Office, Trump said "Colombia has cocaine factories where cocaine is produced." "Would I destroy these factories? I would do it proudly, personally. I didn't say I would, but I would be proud to do it because we would save millions of lives by doing it," Trump added.

Tensions remain high between the two administrations, with the U.S. recently sanctioning Petro and members of his family over alleged drug ties.

Petro, in turn, has floated the idea of uniting several South American nations to revive Gran Colombia, the 19th-century republic that once encompassed modern-day Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador and Panama, as he claims that the United States' counter-narcotics campaign is undermining regional sovereignty.

During a speech at the Latin American and Caribbean Peoples' Summit earlier this month, Petro also directed a warning to Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, urging them to respect the sovereignty of South American nations.

"Be careful," Petro said. "You are crossing the Caribbean of the liberators. You are entering Bolívar's homeland. Have you not read Bolívar's history? You are arriving in lands where armies of peasants with spears defeated the most powerful forces in the world."

Petro has also slammed the strikes against alleged drug vessels, recently saying people aboard the boats are "doing the job to survive."

"You have to not have a soul or not know Colombia to not know that aboard those boats are poor people born in the Caribbean doing the job to survive," Petro added in a social media publication.

Last week The Associated Press revealed in an investigation that people operating boats targeted by U.S. strikes in the Caribbean were indeed running drugs, but were not high-up in criminal organizations.

The outlet said it conducted dozens of interviews in villages from which some of the boats departed, managing to identify nine people on the boats. It noted that most of the men were in such boats for the first of second time and were going to be paid at least $500 for the trip. A few were laborers, other was a fisherman and another one a motorcycle taxi driver.

Two others, the AP noted, were low-level career criminals and one was a local crime boss who contracted smuggling services to traffickers. All of them used the boats to take drugs to Trinidad or other nearby islands, from where they would continue to other routes.