Colombian President Gustavo Petro is rebuking his critics who accuse him of having “knelt” before President Donald Trump by speaking with him on the phone and arranging a visit to the White House.
Petro claimed on Thursday that it was actually Sen. Rand Paul, the libertarian from Kentucky, who helped “reestablish communication that, in reality, had never existed.”
“Senator Rand Paul managed to speak with President Donald Trump the day before yesterday and convinced Trump of a phone call with me, which I accepted, because I’ve always been convinced since I was young that it’s always better to dialogue to stop the violence.”
Petro said Trump “responded courteously and allowed him to “set out my points of view on two topics: drug trafficking and Venezuela.”
The Colombian president explained his perspective on narcotics trafficking, claiming that he has been working to combat the trade for decades. He also told Trump about a previous proposal he made under President Joe Biden to form an “alliance based on respect for nations and clean energies […] to prevent the climate crisis from ending in irreversible and deadly collapse for humanity.”
“I know that President Trump doesn’t agree with me, but it’s more convenient to start a dialogue about it than to settle it on battlefields,” Petro concluded. “Now we have to see the consequences of the reestablishment of diplomatic conversation.”
In the weeks leading up to Wednesday, Petro variously compared Trump to the Nazis and accused him of belonging to a clan of pedophiles. Trump, in turn, has sanctioned Petro and warned him to “watch his ass” or else he could be the next victim of U.S. intervention.
While the Colombian president has pivoted from saber-rattling to dialogue, not all of his countrymen are on the same page.
Cities across the country have been flooded with protesters decrying the U.S. military action against Maduro and denouncing American imperialism.
Some critics have accused Petro of bending the knee to Trump by accepting the opportunity to speak on the phone, a smear that seems to have gotten to the Colombian leader.
“They say that I knelt, another lie. They throw the stone and hide their hands,” Petro said of his critics. “No one from the M19 refuses dialogue; it is in dialogue where Peace is found. Dialogue does not kneel, the lie does.”
TRUMP SIGNALS HE COULD TAKE ACTION ON CUBA, COLOMBIA, AND OTHER COUNTRIES AFTER VENEZUELA
“M19” refers to the 19th of April Movement, an insurgent guerrilla alliance in Colombia that Petro joined when he was a teenager. It later transformed into a political party before being absorbed into broader coalitions.
Trump and Petro are scheduled to meet soon at the White House, although an exact date has not yet been announced.