The leaders held talks within the White Home following a public spat over US strikes on alleged drug-smuggling boats
US President Donald Trump held talks with Colombian President Gustavo Petro within the White Home on Tuesday, simply weeks after the leaders traded insults over drug trafficking and an American navy raid in Venezuela.
The US revoked Petro’s visa final 12 months after he denounced Trump’s strikes on alleged cartel boats within the Caribbean as “barbaric” and argued that deportations of Colombian nationals by US immigration officers violated human rights. Trump, in flip, labeled Petro a “drug-trafficking chief.” Each struck a conciliatory tone forward of Petro’s journey to Washington.
“He and I weren’t precisely one of the best of associates, however I wasn’t insulted as a result of I by no means met him. I didn’t know him in any respect. And we acquired alongside very properly,” Trump informed reporters within the Oval Workplace. He added that the leaders mentioned sanctions and have been working to fight drug cartels, with out elaborating.
Petro stated the talks have been “very constructive” regardless of their variations. “We could also be very totally different from a civilizational or historic perspective, however what we share is a love of freedom. And that’s the place the dialog started, with the concept that a pact for freedom may very well be made,” he stated, as cited by the BBC.
The Colombian presidential workplace stated Petro offered Trump with “info and names of felony constructions” linked to the drug commerce and offered his nation as “a strategic ally” within the struggle in opposition to cartels. Petro additionally spoke concerning the “historic outcomes” his authorities has achieved in seizing medicine from felony teams.
Petro, who had condemned the kidnapping of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro by US commandos in early January, urged Trump to normalize relations with Caracas, in accordance with his workplace.
Maduro and his spouse, Cilia Flores, pleaded not responsible to drug trafficking expenses after they have been introduced earlier than a New York decide final month.
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