Colombian President Gustavo Petro said he would "take up arms" in the face of threats from his US counterpart, Donald Trump, who over the weekend abducted the leader of neighbouring Venezuela after a military strike.
Petro, a former guerrilla who has for months been the target of insults and threats from Trump, said on X on Monday, "I swore not to touch a weapon again, but for the homeland I will take up arms again."
Petro, whose M-19 guerrilla group disarmed under a 1989 peace agreement, has traded barbs with Trump ever since the Republican's return to the White House in January.
Petro has been a vocal critic of the US military deployment in the Caribbean, which began with the blowing up of alleged drug boats before expanding to the seizure of Venezuelan oil tankers.
Trump accused the Colombian leader, without providing evidence, of being involved in drug trafficking and hit him and his family with financial sanctions.
Washington also removed Colombia from a list of countries certified as allies in the US war on drugs.
In a long message on X, Petro insisted that his anti-narcotics policy is sufficiently robust but stressed there were limits to how aggressive the military can be.
"If you bomb even one of these groups without sufficient intelligence, you will kill many children. If you bomb peasants, thousands will turn into guerrillas in the mountains. And if you detain the president, whom a good part of my people love and respect, you will unleash the popular jaguar," he wrote.
Trump's threats
The Trump administration is close to the right-wing opposition in Colombia, which has high hopes of winning legislative and presidential elections this year.
Trump said over the weekend, "He is a sick man who likes making cocaine and selling it to the United States."
On Sunday, Trump threatened to strike Venezuela a second time if "they don't behave”, while also threatening military action against Colombia's government, telling reporters that such an operation "sounds good to me."
"We're dealing with the people who just got sworn in. Don't ask me who is in charge because I will give you an answer, and it'll be very controversial," Trump told reporters on Air Force One when asked if he had spoken to interim leader Delcy Rodriguez.
Pressed on what he meant, Trump said, "It means we're in charge."
The comments came after the United States abducted Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in an audacious raid and whisked him to New York to face drug-trafficking charges.
