“Colombian Ambassador to the United States Daniel García-Peña has been summoned back to Bogotá for consultations and has already arrived in the capital,” Colombia’s Foreign Ministry announced on October 20. “The Colombian government will soon announce further decisions regarding this matter.”
The move came after U.S. President Donald Trump accused his Colombian counterpart, Gustavo Petro, of being a “drug lord” and “promoting large-scale narcotics production.” Trump demanded that Petro shut down cocaine cultivation areas, warning that “if he doesn’t, the U.S. will take action in a not-so-gentle way.”
The White House also threatened to cut off “massive payments and subsidies” to Colombia and impose new tariffs on Colombian goods. This marks the second time this year that Bogotá has recalled its ambassador from Washington. The previous instance occurred in July, after the U.S. withdrew its acting chargé d’affaires, John McNamara, from Bogotá — an action that led President Petro to accuse Washington of supporting an alleged plot to overthrow him, which the White House denied.
Relations between the two countries have further deteriorated since early September, when Washington launched an anti-narcotics campaign in the Caribbean Sea. The U.S. military reported airstrikes on seven drug-carrying boats that left more than 30 people dead.
Following the operation, Washington announced that it no longer considered Bogotá a partner in the fight against drug trafficking. In response, Colombia suspended all arms purchases from the U.S. Later in September, the U.S. revoked President Petro’s visa after he attended a pro-Palestinian rally in New York.
On October 8, Petro claimed that one of the boats targeted by U.S. forces had carried Colombian citizens, calling for international condemnation. “This is not a war against smuggling — it’s a war for oil, and the world must stop it. This act of aggression targets all of Latin America and the Caribbean,” he declared.
The White House dismissed Petro’s comments as “baseless and irresponsible,” urging him to retract them.
On October 19, Petro again accused Washington of violating Colombia’s sovereignty, alleging that a Colombian fisherman had been killed in a U.S. strike in Caribbean waters.
Colombia remains one of the largest recipients of U.S. aid in the Western Hemisphere, but that flow of funds has been sharply reduced since the closure of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) mission in the country.
The United States is Colombia’s largest trading partner, accounting for nearly 35% of Colombia’s total exports, according to the Colombia–U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Conversely, around 70% of Colombia’s imports from the U.S. consist of goods the South American nation does not produce domestically.