Diplomatic relations between Colombia and the United States have reached a dramatic low, as Colombia recalled its ambassador to Washington following a series of heated exchanges between President Gustavo Petro and U.S. President Donald Trump. The move, announced on October 20, 2025, by Colombian Foreign Minister Rosa Yolanda Villavicencio Mapy, comes on the heels of escalating tensions that have left the longstanding partnership between the two nations in a state of uncertainty.
The immediate trigger for this diplomatic rupture was a barrage of accusations and policy shifts from President Trump. On October 19, Trump announced the cessation of all U.S. aid and subsidies to Colombia, a country long considered a key American ally in the fight against narcotics. He also declared the imposition of new, unspecified tariffs on Colombian imports. These actions, delivered both from the presidential plane and via his social media platform, were accompanied by incendiary rhetoric. Trump labeled Petro a “lunatic” and, without evidence, accused him of being an “illegal drug leader,” asserting, “It has become the biggest business in Colombia, by far, and Petro does nothing to stop it, despite large scale payments and subsidies from the USA that are nothing more than a long term rip off of America.”
Trump’s tirade did not stop there. He warned that unless Petro took immediate action to shut down drug production fields, the United States would intervene directly, “and it won’t be done nicely.” According to Fox News, Trump described Petro as “a low-rated and very unpopular leader with a fresh mouth toward America.”
The spark for this latest crisis was a U.S. military strike on a suspected drug-smuggling submarine in the Caribbean Sea on October 16. Trump claimed the vessel was transporting drugs from Venezuela. However, Petro countered that the attack may have occurred in Colombian waters and that the crew included Colombian citizens. One survivor was Colombian, another Ecuadorian; both were subsequently deported. Petro, in a post on X (formerly Twitter), accused the U.S. of committing “murder” and violating Colombia’s sovereignty, stating, “US government officials have committed a murder and violated our sovereignty in territorial waters. Fisherman Alejandro Carranza had no ties to the drug trade and his daily activity was fishing. The Colombian boat was adrift and had its distress signal up due to an engine failure. We await explanations from the US government.”
Colombia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed that Ambassador Daniel García-Peña had returned to Bogotá for consultations and would remain there while the government considers its next steps. “The Government of Colombia will announce the corresponding decisions in due course,” Villavicencio Mapy said in her announcement.
This episode is the latest in a series of confrontations between the two leaders. Earlier in 2025, Trump imposed tariffs on Colombia in retaliation for Petro’s decision to block a U.S. deportee plane from landing in Bogotá. The situation was defused hours later through diplomatic mediation. In September, the U.S. decertified Colombia’s anti-narcotics efforts—the first such move in nearly three decades—despite Colombia being the world’s largest exporter of cocaine. Just weeks before the current crisis, Petro’s comments at a pro-Palestinian rally in New York, where he urged U.S. soldiers to “disobey the orders of Trump,” led to the revocation of his U.S. visa.
The economic stakes are high. Colombia is one of the few Latin American countries that still counts the United States as its largest trading partner. According to the Colombian-American Chamber of Commerce, 35 percent of Colombia’s exports go to the U.S., while 70 percent of imports from the U.S. are goods not produced domestically. The imposition of tariffs could deal a significant blow to Colombia’s already struggling economy, which faces a trade deficit of $338 million with the U.S. between January and July 2025, as reported by DANE, Colombia’s government statistics agency.
U.S. assistance has also played a critical role in Colombia’s internal security. This year, Colombia was set to receive over $400 million in U.S. aid, but reductions had already cut that figure nearly in half. The latest announcement threatens to eliminate such support altogether. The Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA) warned, “Withdrawing aid from your top anti-narcotics ally is counterproductive and makes stopping drugs to the US even harder. It’s shooting yourself in the foot,” wrote Gimena Sánchez-Garzoli, WOLA’s Andes director.
Recent data from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) found that coca cultivation in Colombia increased by 10 percent in 2023, reaching record levels. Petro has blamed the surge on his predecessor, Iván Duque, arguing that failure to implement the 2016 peace agreement with the FARC guerrilla group—an accord initially supported by both Barack Obama and, in its early years, by Trump—has fueled instability and allowed criminal groups to flourish.
For his part, Petro has pushed back forcefully against Trump’s accusations. “Mr. Trump, Colombia has never been rude to the United States … but you are rude and ignorant to Colombia,” he wrote on X. “Since I am not a businessman, I am even less a drug trafficker. There is no greed in my heart.” Petro has consistently defended his administration’s efforts to combat narcotics, declaring, “Trying to promote peace in Colombia is not being a drug trafficker. I am the main enemy of drugs in my country.” He has also suggested that Trump is being misled by his advisors and insisted that only the Colombian people have the right to determine Colombia’s course.
The fallout from the diplomatic row is not limited to the two presidents. U.S. Republican Senator Lindsey Graham echoed Trump’s stance, confirming that tariffs on Colombia were imminent. Representative Maria Elvira Salazar, a Florida Republican, placed the blame squarely on Petro, writing, “Petro attacks Trump while protecting narcos and engaging in the drug business. He prefers to attack the United States instead of combating drug trafficking. He deserves neither respect nor a single cent of aid.”
In response to the mounting pressure, Petro declared on October 20 that the Free Trade Agreement between Colombia and the U.S., in place since 2010, is now “de facto suspended,” attributing the move to the Trump administration’s unilateral imposition of tariffs earlier this year. The Colombian government has indicated that further decisions will be made following a Cabinet meeting, as the country braces for the economic and diplomatic repercussions of the crisis.
As the rift deepens, Colombia faces its worst security crisis in a decade, with armed and criminal groups operating freely in coca-producing regions. The loss of U.S. aid and preferential trade terms threatens to exacerbate these challenges, testing the resilience of one of Latin America’s most crucial bilateral relationships.
With both sides entrenched and neither leader showing signs of backing down, the coming weeks will prove pivotal for the future of U.S.-Colombia relations—and for the stability of the region as a whole.
