Colombia Senator Clara López Obregón: Latin America Needs "Collective" Response to U.S. Aggression

Feb 4, 2026 | After several months of rising tension between them, Colombian President Gustavo Petro sat down with U.S. President Donald Trump in a closed-door meeting that lasted approximately two hours at the White House on Tuesday. The two leaders have exchanged threats and insults since Trump returned to office in 2025, with Petro harshly criticizing the U.S. bombing of boats at sea and for threatening the sovereignty of countries in Latin America. Both leaders took a much more conciliatory tone after their meeting, with Petro sharing a photo of them shaking hands alongside a handwritten note from Trump calling it an "honor" and adding, "I love Colombia."

Colombian Senator Clara López Obregón, speaking to Democracy Now! from Bogotá, says the White House meeting was an important "repositioning" of the relationship, and cautions that the region needs a more coordinated response to "coercion" from the U.S. "Latin America, unfortunately, has been unable to structure meaningful and permanent instruments of collective action, so each country has to negotiate on its own from a position of weakness."


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Columbian President Withdraws Criticism on Trump

Jan 8, 2026 | President Trump says the US could be running Venezuela for years.

"This Is Our Hemisphere": Report from Colombia on Trump's Escalating Threats to the Region

Jan 7, 2026 | Following his attack on Venezuela and the abduction of Nicolás Maduro, President Donald Trump has escalated his threats against Colombia and claimed without evidence that President Gustavo Petro is involved in cocaine trafficking. Trump and others in his administration have also threatened military action against Cuba, Greenland, Iran and Mexico in recent days.

Manuel Rozental, a Colombian physician and activist with more than 40 years of involvement in grassroots political organizing, tells Democracy Now! that Trump's attacks on Petro are lies. The former guerrilla "has seized more cocaine than any other government in the past," says Rozental. "President Petro is not a drug trafficker. President Petro has been a victim of drug mafias and their allies."


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WIKIPEDIA: Gustavo Petro »

Les États-Unis imposent des sanctions contre le président colombien Gustavo Petro, qui dénonce un «paradoxe total»

LE FIGARO : Le département américain du Trésor accuse le président colombien de ne rien faire pour limiter la production de cocaïne dans le pays.

Le département américain du Trésor a annoncé vendredi, dans un communiqué, imposer des sanctions visant le président colombien Gustavo Petro, ainsi que son fils, sa femme et son ministre de l'Intérieur Armando Benedetti, les accusant de ne rien faire pour limiter la production de cocaïne dans le pays. » | Par Le Figaro avec AFP | vendredi 24 octobre 2025