President tells BBC ‘real threat’ of US military action against Colombia

Colombian President Gustavo Petro told the BBC he believed the United States now posed a “real threat” from military action against Colombia.

Petro said the United States views other countries as part of its “empire.” Previously, Trump threatened Colombia with military action. He said that the United States faces the risk of moving from “world domination” to “isolation in the world.”

He also accused U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents of acting like a “Nazi brigade.” Trump has dramatically expanded ICE operations as part of what the administration says is a crackdown on crime and immigrants who enter the U.S. illegally.

The BBC has contacted the White House for comment.

US President Donald Trump said military action against Colombia “sounds good” after the US attacked Venezuela and arrested Nicolas Maduro.

Trump also repeatedly told Petro to “be careful,” which Petro strongly condemned.

Trump and Petro spoke by phone Wednesday night, after which Trump said he Will meet with Colombian foreign minister at White House “in the near future”. Later on Wednesday, Trump wrote on his Truth social platform after the call that he described his conversation with Petro as a “tremendous honor.” A Colombian official said at the time that the conversation reflected a 180-degree shift in rhetoric from “both sides.”

But on Thursday, Petro’s tone suggested that relations between the two countries had not improved significantly.

He told the BBC that the call lasted less than an hour and “was me doing most of the time” and covered “Colombian drug trafficking”, Colombia’s views on Venezuela and “what’s going on in Latin America with respect to the United States”.

Petro has been a strong critic of recent U.S. immigration enforcement, accusing ICE agents of acting like a “Nazi brigade.”

President Trump often blames immigrants for crime and trafficking in the United States, justifying massive law enforcement operations and accusing countries such as Colombia and Venezuela of not doing enough to combat drug trafficking.

Since returning to the White House, the President of the United States has dispatched ICE agents to cities across the country. The agency enforces immigration laws and investigates undocumented immigrants. It also plays a role in deporting undocumented immigrants from the United States.

The government says so 605,000 people were expelled between January 20 and December 10, 2025. The report also said 1.9 million migrants “voluntarily self-deported” after an aggressive public information campaign encouraged people to leave the country on their own to avoid arrest or detention.

About 65,000 people were in ICE custody as of November 30, 2025, according to data obtained by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse Immigration Project, a Syracuse University government data compilation.

This week, a U.S. immigration agent shot and killed a 37-year-old U.S. citizen in Minneapolis, sparking overnight protests.

Federal officials said the woman, Renee Nicole GoodeShe tried to run over an immigration officer with her car, but Mayor Jacob Frey, a Democrat, said the immigration officer who shot her acted recklessly and asked the immigration officer to leave the city.

Petro said ICE “has gotten to the point where it’s no longer just persecuting Latinos in the streets, which is an insult to us, but also killing American citizens.”

If this continues, he added, “America will no longer dominate the world – the dream of an empire – but will become an America cut off from the world. Empires are not built by being cut off from the world.”

Petro said that “for decades,” the United States has viewed other governments, especially those in Latin America, as “empires” regardless of the law.

The two leaders have long been rivals, often exchanging insults and tariff threats on social media.

Following the U.S. military action against Venezuela, Petro accused Washington of seeking a war over “oil and coal,” adding that if the U.S. had not withdrawn from the Paris Agreement, in which countries agreed to limit rising global temperatures by reducing their use of fossil fuels, “there would have been no wars and relations with the world and with South America would have been more democratic and peaceful.”

“That’s the problem with Venezuela,” he said.

Demonstrations have been held across the country in the name of sovereignty and democracy following Trump’s comments threatening military action against Colombia.

Petro told the BBC that Trump’s comments amounted to a “real threat”, citing Colombia’s loss of territories such as Panama in the 20th century, and said “the prospect of eliminating (the threat) depends on the ongoing dialogue.”

Asked how Colombia would defend itself in the event of a U.S. attack, Petro said he would “prefer to be based on dialogue.” “Work is ongoing” on this, he said.

But he added: “Colombia’s history shows how it responds to large armies.”

“It’s not about fighting a huge army with weapons we don’t have. We don’t even have anti-aircraft defenses. Instead, we rely, as always, on the masses, our mountains and our jungles.”

Petro confirmed that he also spoke with Venezuela’s acting president, former vice president and oil minister Delcy Rodriguez, and invited her to visit Colombia.

Venezuela “has long been disrupted by various intelligence agencies,” he said, adding that while the agencies were licensed to operate in Colombia, their purpose was only to combat drug trafficking. He denounced what he called other attempts at “covert operations” in Colombia.

He did not comment directly when asked if he was concerned the CIA might be conducting covert operations in Colombia similar to those in Venezuela, or if he was concerned there might be informants in his own government or inner circle.

Maduro was captured by Delta Force, the U.S. military’s top counterterrorism unit. After Venezuelan government’s CIA source Help the United States track his location.

As the world’s largest producer of cocaine, Colombia is a major center of the global drug trade. It also has significant oil reserves as well as gold, silver, emeralds, platinum and coal.

The United States said it would control the sales of Venezuelan oil “indefinitely” and prepare to lift restrictions on the country’s crude oil in global markets.

Speaking aboard Air Force One after the Venezuela operation, Trump called Petro “a sick man who likes to make cocaine and sell it to the United States,” adding: “He won’t do it for long.”

Petro denied the claims, saying “it has always been proven that I was not involved.”

“For 20 years I have been fighting drug cartels at the cost of my family having to go into exile,” he said.

Petro, a former guerrilla, has pursued a “comprehensive peace” strategy since taking office, prioritizing dialogue with armed groups. Critics said the approach was too mild and that cocaine production reached record levels.

Asked about the reasons for the failure and whether he accepted responsibility, Petro said growth in coca cultivation was slowing and described “two simultaneous approaches.”

“One is to talk about peace with bandit groups. The other is to launch a military offensive against those who don’t want peace.”

He said negotiations were ongoing in southern Colombia, “where the area under coca leaf cultivation has declined the most” and where “Colombia’s homicide rate has declined the most.” Cocaine is made from the leaves of the coca plant.

He said the purpose of the dialogue policy was to “de-escalate violence”, adding: “We are not fools, we know who we are negotiating with.”