{"id":8929,"date":"2026-01-05T18:14:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-05T18:14:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/2026\/01\/05\/colombias-petro-promises-to-defend-homeland-amid-trump-threats-al-jazeera\/"},"modified":"2026-01-05T18:14:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-05T18:14:09","slug":"colombias-petro-promises-to-defend-homeland-amid-trump-threats-al-jazeera","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/2026\/01\/05\/colombias-petro-promises-to-defend-homeland-amid-trump-threats-al-jazeera\/","title":{"rendered":"Colombia\u2019s Petro promises to defend homeland amid Trump threats &#8211; Al Jazeera"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p><em>President criticizes Trump, calling US threats an undue interference in Colombian internal matters under international law.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div aria-live=\"polite\" aria-atomic=\"true\">\n<p>Colombian President Gustavo Petro says he would \u201ctake up arms\u201d for his country if necessary as the United States issues <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2026\/1\/5\/trump-threatens-colombias-petro-says-cuba-looks-like-its-ready-to-fall\">threats against him<\/a> and his government.<\/p>\n<p>In a social media post on Monday, Petro, a former leftist fighter, said any violent US intervention in Colombia, such as the kind carried out <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2026\/1\/3\/colombia-braces-with-alarm-after-maduros-removal-in-venezuela-by-us\">in Venezuela<\/a> over the weekend, would provoke a response.<\/p>\n<section>\n<h2>Recommended Stories <\/h2>\n<p><span>list of 3 items<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span>list 1 of 3<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2026\/1\/3\/colombia-braces-with-alarm-after-maduros-removal-in-venezuela-by-us\">Colombia braces with alarm after Maduro\u2019s removal in Venezuela by US<\/a><\/li>\n<li><span>list 2 of 3<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2026\/1\/4\/venezuela-decries-cowardly-kidnapping-as-officials-back-maduro\">Venezuela decries \u2018cowardly kidnapping\u2019 as officials back Maduro<\/a><\/li>\n<li><span>list 3 of 3<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2026\/1\/5\/trump-threatens-colombias-petro-says-cuba-looks-like-its-ready-to-fall\">Trump threatens Colombia\u2019s Petro, says Cuba looks \u2018ready to fall\u2019<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n<p>\u201cI swore not to touch a weapon again,\u201d Petro said. \u201cBut for the homeland I will take up arms again.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Petro has emerged as an outspoken critic of US President <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2025\/10\/19\/trump-calls-colombias-petro-a-drug-leader-says-us-to-cut-aid-to-country\">Donald Trump<\/a>, who has threatened Colombia with possible military strikes in the name of combating drug trafficking.<\/p>\n<p>The two leaders have frequently traded insults, but Trump\u2019s threats have become increasingly hostile in recent days.<\/p>\n<p>The US president said over the weekend that Petro should \u201cwatch his a**\u201d after the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.collinsdictionary.com\/dictionary\/english\/abduction\">abduction<\/a> of Venezuelan leader <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/features\/2026\/1\/5\/what-the-us-did-in-venezuela-normalises-power-grabs-expert\">Nicolas Maduro<\/a>, an act widely considered illegal by scholars of international law. Speaking with reporters on Sunday, Trump said a similar operation against Petro\u2019s government \u201csounds good to me\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cColombia is very sick, too, run by a sick man, who likes making cocaine and selling it to the United States, and he\u2019s not going to be doing it very long,\u201d Trump said.<\/p>\n<p>Colombia\u2019s Ministry of Foreign Affairs denounced Trump\u2019s comments as \u201can undue interference in the internal affairs of the country, against the norms of international law\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Trump has accused Petro of facilitating the trafficking of drugs to the US, a claim for which there is no evidence and is firmly denied by Petro, who says his government has worked to combat drug production while taking steps away from the militarised approach of the war on drugs.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI have enormous trust in my people,\u201d Petro said. \u201cAnd that is why I have asked the people to defend the president from any illegitimate violent act against him.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>President criticizes Trump, calling US threats an undue interference in Colombian internal matters under international law. Colombian President Gustavo Petro says he would \u201ctake up arms\u201d for his country if necessary as the United States issues threats against him and his government. In a social media post on Monday, Petro, a former leftist fighter, said [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8930,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8929","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8929","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8929"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8929\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8930"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8929"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8929"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8929"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}