Colombian President Gustavo Petro met US President Donald Trump at the White House on Tuesday for their first face-to-face talks, held amid tensions after the US operation that ousted Venezuela’s leader last month. The private meeting lasted about two hours.
Afterward, Petro said Trump offered to mediate between Colombia and Ecuador in a growing trade dispute. Trump described the encounter as “very good” and said he and Petro were working on sanctions and other issues. “My impression of the meeting a few hours ago is first and foremost that it was positive,” Petro told reporters.
Trump signed a copy of his 1987 book, The Art of the Deal, for Petro with the inscription “You are great.” Petro posted a photo of the signed book on X, joking that he did not fully understand the English dedication.
The White House released a photo of the two leaders in the Oval Office but provided no immediate details on the discussions. Trump administration officials said counternarcotics efforts and security cooperation were on the agenda.
Petro and Trump have had a contentious relationship. Petro criticized US moves in the Caribbean after the Venezuelan operation, and Trump has repeatedly threatened Colombia over cocaine shipments to the United States. Trump previously called Petro a “sick man who likes making cocaine and selling it to the United States” and said a similar US operation in Colombia “sounds good to me.” Despite that rhetoric, both leaders described a follow-up phone call positively, and Petro agreed to visit Washington.
Recently, Colombia resumed extraditions after sending a drug lord to the US, restarting transfers that had been paused amid negotiations with armed groups involved in the drug trade. Colombia also agreed last week to accept US deportation flights. The Trump administration had levied sanctions against Petro and family members, accusing him of failing to curb cocaine flows; those sanctions were waived to permit Petro’s travel to the US.
JD Vance and Marco Rubio were present in the Oval Office during the talks. Colombia has long been a key US ally in Latin America and central to US counternarcotics strategy.
Edited by: Jenipher Camino Gonzalez