US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday branded Colombian President Gustavo Petro a "lunatic" after tensions with the leftist leader over a deadly US strike on an alleged drug-smuggling boat.
"I think the Colombian authorities, when it comes to, like, the military and the police, are still very pro-American. The only problem in Colombia is a lunatic president," Rubio told reporters.
"The guy's a lunatic — a lunatic! — and he's not well," said Rubio, a sworn foe of Latin American leftists.
Earlier on Wednesday, President Donald Trump and his Colombian counterpart Petro traded angry threats as the US announced strikes on what it called drug-smuggling boats in the Pacific Ocean that left five people dead.
Trump branded Petro a "thug" and suggested he was a drug trafficker leading his country to ruin, prompting the leftist leader to vow: "I will defend myself legally with American lawyers."
The US president also said vital military aid to Bogota had been cut and warned Petro — a sharp critic of the strikes — to "watch it".
