According to the Colombian president, the leaders spoke about coca eradication, capturing drug traffickers abroad, and the dispute with Ecuador, as well as a route for Venezuelan gas.
The Colombian president, Gustavo Petro, told local radio Caracol on Tuesday that he and the U.S. president, Donald Trump, discussed the possibility of exporting Venezuelan gas through Colombia, the fight against drug trafficking, and Colombia’s commercial and drug dispute with Ecuador in a meeting at the White House.
The two men have been at odds since Trump took office, with the American leader repeatedly accusing Petro’s government, without evidence, of allowing a steady flow of cocaine into the United States, imposing sanctions on the Colombian leader and threatening military action against the South American country.
Petro, for his part, has harshly criticized U.S. support for Israel and has called for criminal proceedings over the U.S. missile strikes against ships suspected of drug trafficking in the Caribbean.
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But the relationship seemed to heat up last month, and photos posted on X by Petro suggested that the meeting between the two was cordial.
They discussed eradication — but not aerial fumigation — of coca crops, Petro said, and he asked Trump to help capture major drug traffickers living abroad and mediate tensions with Ecuador’s president, Daniel Noboa.
