Trump Invites Colombian President To White House Days After Threatening Him | EUROtoday

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump abruptly modified his tone Wednesday about his Colombian counterpart, Gustavo Petro, saying they’d exchanged a pleasant telephone name and he’d even invited the chief of the South American nation to the White House.

“It was a Great Honor to speak with the President of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, who called to explain the situation of drugs and other disagreements that we have had,” Trump posted on his social media website. “I appreciated his call and tone, and look forward to meeting him in the near future.” He mentioned that assembly would happen on the White House.

That got here mere days after Trump mentioned within the wake of the U.S. operation to oust Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro over the weekend that “Colombia is very sick too” and accused Petro of ”making cocaine and promoting it to the United States.”

In feedback to reporters aboard Air Force One on Sunday, Trump added of Petro, “He’s not going to be doing it very long, let me tell you.” Asked whether or not U.S. intervention was potential, Trump responded, ”Sounds good to me.”

Trump now instantly warming to Prieto is particularly shocking since Colombia’s president referred to as the U.S. operation in Venezuela an “abhorrent” violation of Latin American sovereignty and instructed it was dedicated by “enslavers” and constituted a “spectacle of death” corresponding to Nazi Germany’s 1937 carpet bombing of Guernica, Spain.

Before Trump’s conciliatory publish, tensions had been rising between the U.S. and Colombia for months.

The Trump administration imposed sanctions in October on Petro, his household and a member of his authorities over accusations of involvement within the international drug commerce. Colombia is taken into account the epicenter of the world’s cocaine commerce.

Trump started his monthslong stress marketing campaign on Maduro by ordering dozens of deadly strikes on alleged drug smuggling boats launched from Venezuela within the Caribbean. He ultimately expanded the operations to additionally goal suspected vessels within the jap Pacific that got here from Colombia.

The U.S. in September added Colombia, the highest recipient of American help within the area, to an inventory of countries failing to cooperate within the drug warfare for the primary time in virtually 30 years. The designation led to a slashing of U.S. help to the nation.

“He has cocaine mills and cocaine factories,” Trump mentioned of Prieto on Sunday. “He’s not going to be doing it.”