Colombian President Says He Will ‘Take Up Arms’ If US Military Attacks

Authored by Jill McLaughlin via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Colombian President Gustavo Petro said Monday he will “take up arms again” if attacked, in response to U.S. President Donald Trump’s warning that drug traffickers in Colombia could be the next target for the U.S. military.

After hours of silence, Petro accused U.S. Secretary Marco Rubio in an early morning post on X of believing “false information against the state” from several intelligence colonels in the Colombian police, whom he said he has since fired.

He said the alleged lies about him came from Colombian politicians linked “to the mafia” who “want the US and Colombia to break off relations so that cocaine trafficking skyrockets worldwide.”

In September, the U.S. State Department determined that Colombia was one of a handful of countries that served as a major drug transit or production hub.

“Under President Petro’s leadership, coca cultivation and cocaine production have reached record highs, while Colombia’s government failed to meet even its own vastly reduced coca eradication goals, undermining years of mutually beneficial cooperation between our two countries against narco terrorists,” the State Department said.

Columbia’s security institutions and local authorities showed “skill and courage” in confronting terrorist and criminal groups, the department said, adding that the nation’s failure to meet its drug control obligations rests with its political leadership.

Petro denied all allegations of drug trafficking and corruption, while defending his government’s approach to fighting narcotraffickers and opposing military action that he said would put civilians at risk.

“I have ordered bombings, respecting all norms of humanitarian law, resulting in the deaths and capture of top commanders of armed groups subservient to drug trafficking,” he said of coca leaf plantations that serve as the world’s primary source for cocaine production.

“Their tactics include recruiting minors to protect their leaders from being bombed.

“If you bomb just one of these groups without sufficient intelligence, you will kill many children.

“If you bomb peasants, thousands of guerrillas will rise up in the mountains.”

He then said if the U.S. military targets him, as it did with ousted Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, “a large part of my people love and respect, they will unleash the people’s jaguar.”

“I swore never to touch another weapon after the 1989 Peace Agreement, but for the sake of my country, I will take up arms again, weapons I don’t want.”

After defending his record and election by popular vote, Petro said, “I’m not illegitimate, nor am I a drug trafficker.”

“I have enormous faith in my people, and that is why I have asked them to defend the president against any illegitimate act of violence,” he said.

“The way to defend me is to take power in every municipality in the country.”

Trump hinted at possible actions against Colombia on Sunday, warning the country and Mexico that their drug traffickers could face U.S. military intervention.

“Colombia is very sick too, run by a sick man who likes making cocaine and selling it to the United States,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One.

“And he’s not going to be doing it very long, let me tell you.”

In December, Trump issued a warning to Petro to curb Colombia’s cocaine production.

Last fall, the Trump administration sanctioned Petro for failing to curb drug trafficking through his country.

Petro denied the claim, saying his administration had made record-setting cocaine seizures.

Amid the recent drug boat strikes by the United States in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific, Petro said that a majority of the people killed were Colombian.