Trump, Colombia's Petro make amends at White House

U.S. President Donald Trump and Colombian President Gustavo Petro said on Tuesday that their first face-to-face meeting was cordial. Petro arrived at the White House, and no media were allowed to attend the roughly two-hour meeting. In separate remarks afterward, neither leader clearly stated that they had reached concrete agreements. Asked by reporters later in the afternoon whether they had come to an accord to counter narcotics flows from Colombia, Trump said the two leaders were working on it. “Yeah, we did," Trump said. "We worked on it, and we got along very well."

Following the meeting, Petro posted a photo on X with a note that appeared to be handwritten by Trump, reading: "Gustavo – A great honor - I love Colombia." It also contained a photograph of the two leaders shaking hands and smiling. Petro said he asked Trump to help capture major drug traffickers living outside Colombia. "I showed him the proper names and aliases of the bosses who dominate the bosses in Colombia and who live abroad, including in the United States." Petro also said he asked the U.S. president to mediate a diplomatic spat between Colombia and neighboring Ecuador, whose president, Daniel Noboa, is a staunch Trump ally.

Trump told reporters the two leaders were working on sanctions, without elaborating. Petro himself is under U.S. sanctions, which the Trump administration imposed in October for alleged but unproven links to the drug trade, which Petro has denied.

If the leaders had failed to reach a more lasting rapprochement, it could have had profound implications for regional security, analysts said.

In January, the two leaders held a phone call that both described positively, a surprise thaw that led to Petro's invitation to Washington.