Friday, April 17, 2026

Petro says that after his meeting with Trump the differences will be addressed "from mutual respect"

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Bogotá.- Colombian President Gustavo Petro said on Saturday that last Tuesday's meeting with his US counterpart, Donald Trump, re-established a "direct and frank dialogue" with the US government and will allow differences to be addressed "from mutual respect." «My meeting with President Donald Trump re-established a direct and frank dialogue. That is its greatest advance. It will restore the value and power of the frank word and differences will be treated with mutual respect», Petro expressed in a message published on X. The Colombian president concluded on Thursday a four-day trip to the United States in which, after a year of criticism and disagreements, he resumed the path of dialogue with Trump to begin normalizing the bilateral relationship when six months remain until the end of his term. The traditionally good relationship between Colombia and the United States had its first crisis in January 2025 due to Petro's differences with Trump, aired on social media, regarding Washington's immigration policy, amplified by criticisms or threats from both sides over the fight against drug trafficking and the military operation in Venezuela in which Nicolás Maduro was deposed.
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In that sense, the Colombian president assured today that the next step after the meeting with the US president is "to build objective and scientific verification instances to demonstrate the progress of the eradication of coca leaf crops." "I have proposed (also) to the U.S. a plan for the three Americas for energy articulation and growth of generation based on clean energy. Latin America has a potential five times greater in clean energy than the current electrical generation of the U.S.," Petro added.

The axes of the Petro and Trump meeting

The first meeting of the two leaders had as another of its axes the recovery of Venezuela after the changes produced after the fall of Maduro. Petro said that in the closed-door meeting, he made several proposals to Trump, such as the one that the armies of Colombia and Venezuela jointly combat the drug traffickers operating in the border regions and gave him a list of capos living abroad, while offering the collaboration of his country in the recovery of Venezuela, especially in the oil sector.
https://efe.com/mundo/2026-02-03/petro-trump-reunion-casa-blanca-estados-unidos-colombia/embed/#?secret=UKnlxeIZja#?secret=ftkQTjbgvs
"We must begin the construction of technical work teams for the electrical connection with Venezuela and the connections of gas and light oil. I invite the Venezuelan government to finalize these projects with my energy team and to hold meetings on the ground," Petro stated this Saturday.

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