The President of the United States, Donald Trump, received his Colombian counterpart, Gustavo Petro, at the White House this Tuesday, after a year of tensions between them, and the Colombian president said his host agreed to mediate in the dispute with Ecuador. In an interview with Caracol Radio, Petro said the U.S. leader would help with the 'reconciliation with (Daniel) Noboa.' In turn, Trump told reporters at the White House that it was 'a fantastic meeting,' and when asked if the United States would collaborate with Colombia to fight guerrilla groups and terrorist organizations in Venezuela, Trump replied: 'They want us to do it, and we will do it,' reported CNN. The meeting between the two presidents took place behind closed doors with no press access. It was a 'high-level dialogue,' Colombia's presidency expressed on X, while sharing photos of the two. At the end of the meeting, Petro shared on social media a folder signed by Trump that had a White House letterhead with a photo of the two shaking hands in the Oval Office: 'Gustavo: A great honor. Love to Colombia.' The Colombian president also received a photo of Trump's book 'The Art of the Deal' that includes a signature from the U.S. president with a dedication in English that translates to Spanish as: 'You are great.' This is the first meeting between Trump and Petro, who is in the final stretch of his term, with the first round of the Colombian presidential elections scheduled for May 31. In subsequent statements to Colombian radio Caracol, Petro assured that he asked Trump to mediate with the government of Daniel Noboa regarding the dispute over the security and tariff crisis. Colombia and Ecuador are embroiled in a tariff war started by Noboa, who accuses his neighbor of not doing enough to subdue drug trafficking groups operating on the binational border. Petro even revealed that he asked Trump to help him with the 'reconciliation' with Noboa and in a 'triple alliance against drugs.' Petro and Trump had public clashes over drugs and migration, and the Colombian president was sanctioned by the U.S. Department of the Treasury in October 2025. As Argentina's Noticias Argentinas agency learned, Trump accused Petro of participating in the international trafficking of illicit drugs, of promoting the production of narcotics, and of being a 'leader of illegal drugs,' accusations that the Colombian president has repeatedly rejected, recalled CNN. 'Since President Gustavo Petro came to power, cocaine production in Colombia has skyrocketed to the highest rate in decades, flooding the United States and poisoning Americans,' said Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent when the sanctions were announced. The measure added Petro to the government's list of Specially Designated Nationals (SDN), which is managed by the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). The list was created in 1995 by a decree from then-President Bill Clinton, with the objective of combating money laundering by drug traffickers in Colombia. It is informally known as the 'Clinton list.'
