U.S. President Donald Trump escalates tensions with Colombia, threatening tariffs and aid cuts over drug policy. Colombian President Gustavo Petro rejects U.S. pressure, defends refusal to support a Venezuela invasion, and accuses Trump of violating trade and human rights treaties. Key exports like coffee and flowers now face risk.
00:00U.S. President Donald Trump's threat this week to slap Colombia with tariffs over its drug policy marked a sharp escalation in his feud with a country that has long been one of Washington's closest Latin American allies.
00:15It was also a rejection of an established idea about countering the narcotics businesses that free trade can make legitimate exports more attractive than drug trafficking.
00:24On Sunday, Trump said he would raise tariffs and stop financial aid for Bogota and Colombia said on Monday it had recalled its ambassador from Washington.
00:36Most imports from Colombia to the U.S. currently face 10% tariff, the baseline level Trump has imposed on many countries.
00:43Trump also called leftist Colombia President Gustavo Petro an illegal drug dealer after Petro accused the U.S. of committing murder and said the U.S. had fired at a boat of Venezuela that belonged to a humble family, not a rebel group.
00:59Señor Trump, que yo no apoye a los norteamericanos con el ejército colombiano para invadir Venezuela.
01:07No, señor. A que estúpido colombiano se le puede ocurrir ayudar a invadir donde están sus primos, sus sobrinos, su gente colombiana que hay 4 millones, que los maten como en Gaza.
01:20Tensions between the U.S. and many countries in Latin America have been escalating for weeks as the American military has sharply increased its military presence in the southern Caribbean and struck vessels in international waters that it alleges to be carrying drugs without offering evidence.
01:38Head of Colombia Risk Analyst Sergio Guzman told Reuters on Monday that linking Petro to criminal drug trafficking activities seems to be Trump's way of legally justifying the tariffs that he would seek to impose on Colombia.
01:51Meanwhile, Jose Ignacio Lopez, who heads the ANIF economic tank in Bogota, said businesses selling products most dependent on the U.S. market, including coffee, flowers, bananas, limes and avocados, as well as livestock farmers, an old producer could be particularly hard hit.
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