PETRO TO TRUMP: “IF YOU ARREST ME, YOU WILL UNLEASH THE POPULAR JAGUAR”
Colombia’s president just responded to Trump’s threats with what might be the most dramatic political statement of 2025.
After Trump called him a drug trafficker and suggested military action against Colombia (similar to what just happened in Venezuela), Gustavo Petro fired back hard.
He’s not some diplomat trying to smooth things over.
Petro is a former guerrilla fighter who’s now telling Trump he picked the wrong guy to threaten.
Petro’s response went from constitutional lecture to barely veiled warning in about 1,000 words.
Here’s the core of it:
“I am not illegitimate, nor am I a narco, I only have as assets my family home that I still pay for with my salary.
My bank statements have been published. No one could say that I have spent more than my salary.
If you arrest the president whom a good part of my people want and respect, you will unleash the popular jaguar.
I swore not to touch a weapon again since the 1989 Peace Pact, but for the Homeland I will take up arms again that I do not want.
So know that you are facing a commander of the people.”
Petro also gave a direct order to Colombia’s military: any commander who “prefers the flag of the U.S. to the flag of Colombia” must immediately resign.
He told troops their job is to defend the people, not shoot them, but they should absolutely shoot “the invader.”
That’s about as clear as a former guerrilla leader can make his position on potential U.S. military action.
Petro just drew a line. He’s betting Trump won’t risk turning a stable ally into another Afghanistan by trying to remove a president who came out of guerrilla warfare and still has his people’s support.
Source: @petrogustavo