WASHINGTON.- This Tuesday, the meeting took place between the president of the United States, Donald Trumpand his Colombian counterpart, Gustavo Petroin the White Housewhich concluded after two hours of dialogue, with the aim of relaunching the bilateral relationship after a year of disagreements.
The Colombian president arrived at 10:53 local time in Washington (same time in Bogotá and 15:53 GMT) and left the presidential residence at 1:03 p.m. (18:03 GMT).
Closed door meeting
President Donald J. Trump meets with Colombian President Gustavo Petro at the White House. pic.twitter.com/1v05LZ4AP1
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) February 3, 2026
The meeting, which took place behind closed doors and without access to the press, did not have a high-profile reception like that of other leaders, such as the Salvadoran, Nayib Bukele; and the Argentine, Javier Miley.
The Colombian arrived aboard a vehicle United States Secret Service with the Colombian flag, although he was not received at the door of the West Wing by Trump or by the traditional military honor guard.
White House spokesperson Caroline Leavitthe declared in an interview with the network Fox News that Trump entered the meeting “with very good disposition.”
First Trump – Petro meeting
We walked down the corridor of American presidents; In the Casa de Nariño there is one, one goes through history, but there is always a wall, in the end: what next?… pic.twitter.com/R6ti5e9zzK
— Gustavo Petro (@petrogustavo) February 3, 2026
This was the first meeting between Trump and Petrowho is in the final stretch of his mandate, with the first round of the Colombian presidential elections scheduled for May 31.
In the center was the drug trafficking issuesince Washington maintains that the cocaine production has skyrocketed under the Petro Government, while he defends that his policy of crop substitution has been successful.
Petro shares messages that Trump dedicated to him
President Donald Trump dedicated a portion of written messages to his Colombian counterpart, Gustavo Petro, who shared them on his social network account “X,” formerly Twitter.
In one of the messages, the American president says that it was a “great honor” to meet Petro and in another that he loves Colombia.
“Gustavo. A great honor. I love Colombia,” says the card with White House letterhead that accompanies a photograph of both smiling and that was published in X by President Petro.
Petro also published another photo of the book ‘Trump, the art of the deal’ that the American president signed for him with the message: “You are great.”
“What did Trump want to tell me in this dedication? I don’t understand English very much,” Petro said in the message that accompanies the second photo.
Delegations at the meeting
The American delegation was completed by the vice president, JD Vancethe Secretary of State, Marco Rubioand the Republican senator of Colombian origin Bernie Moreno.
On behalf of Colombia, the chancellor participated, Rosa Villavicenciothe Minister of Defense, Pedro Sánchez Suárezand the ambassador to the United States, Daniel García-Peña.
A year of tensions
The appointment occurs after a year of strong tensions between both governments and insults between the two leaders.
The Trump Administration withdrew Colombia’s certification as a country that cooperates in the fight against drugs and revoked Petro’s visa, in addition to including him, along with part of his family, in the call. ‘Clinton List‘, which implies the imposition of financial sanctions for allegedly leading activities related to drug trafficking.
For his part, the Colombian president has been very critical of immigration policy y Trump’s environmental and with his posture in front of the war in Gazaand has condemned the operations against boats in the Caribbeanas well as the capture of Nicolás Maduro on January 3 by US forces.
Special US visa for Petro
However, on January 7, days after the overthrow of Maduroboth had a phone call and agreed to meet.
As a result of the sanctions, Petro had to receive a special visa from the US Government to travel to Washington.
You might also be interested: “ICE breaks into a church in Los Angeles; they denounce the deportation of a Mexican”
Leave a Reply