Colombian President Gustavo Petro did not wait long before firing back at President Donald Trump’s latest threat. After Trump declared that any nation sending narcotics into the United States could face American military action, “not just Venezuela,” Petro offered an invitation that doubled as a reprimand. If Trump wanted a demonstration of how Colombia tackles cocaine production, he said, he was welcome to see it up close.

Trump’s comments came during a Cabinet meeting at the White House, where he accused Colombia of “making cocaine” and shipping it north. He warned that any country involved in that trade was “subject to attack,” a remark that stirred immediate outrage in Bogotá.

Petro countered with numbers and a challenge. His administration, he said, had dismantled more than 18,000 cocaine laboratories, “without missiles,” and continues to destroy roughly one every forty minutes. If the US president doubted Colombia’s commitment, Petro added, he should come and witness the operations himself. “Do not threaten a country that has, for decades, kept thousands of tonnes of cocaine from reaching your shores,” he wrote, adding that endangering Colombia’s sovereignty would awaken “a jaguar.”

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While Petro defended his record, the broader context remains complicated. Despite Colombia’s aggressive eradication measures, the US Drug Enforcement Agency reports that more than four fifths of the cocaine seized on American soil in 2024 originated from Colombia.

Trump’s threat also arrives as his administration maintains a sweeping military deployment across Latin America, presented as an anti-drug campaign but marked by escalating violence. US missile strikes on vessels in the Pacific and Caribbean have killed at least eighty three people, drawing scrutiny from lawmakers and legal experts. One September operation, described as a “double tap,” killed two survivors clinging to wreckage after an initial strike. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, seated beside Trump during the Cabinet remarks, has been questioned over his role in that episode, though he insists he did not authorise or witness the second attack.

No evidence has been provided linking the victims of these strikes to drug trafficking. Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has accused Washington of using narcotics enforcement as a pretext for regime change, a claim that now hangs over the administration’s widening threats across the region.