Days after Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro was captured by US armed forces, Colombian President Gustavo Petro has challenged President Donald and said, "Come get me. I'm waiting for you here."
"If they (US) bomb, the campesinos will become thousands of guerrillas in the mountains. And if they detain the president, which a large part of the country loves and respects, they will unleash the 'jaguar' of the people," he warned. Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro had dared Trump to "come and get him" in August 2025.
"I swore not to touch a weapon again ... but for the homeland I will take up arms again," Petro said. For the unversed, he was a leftist guerrilla before demobilising in the 1990s.
The statement comes after Trump told reporters on Sunday that Colombia is run by a man who is selling drugs to the US. "Colombia is very sick too, run by a sick man who likes making cocaine and selling it to the United States. And he's not going to be doing it very long, let me tell you," Trump said.
“I don’t accept invasions, missiles, or assassinations, only intelligence,” he said. “Come speak here with intelligence, and we’ll receive you and talk face-to-face with facts, not lies,” he added.
In October 2025, Trump sanctioned Petro and members of his family over ties to the illegal drug trade.
Earlier on Sunday, the White House shared a video on X. The clip showed a montage of Maduro challenging the US, along with footage of the raid to capture the Venezuelan leader and his wife, Cilia Flores.
