Colombia’s socialist leader Gustavo Petro has claimed he’s prepared to “take up arms” to fight against President Donald Trump.
Petro published a lengthy, early-morning social media post on Monday, in which he also accused Trump of issuing “illegitimate threats” toward Bogotá.
The Colombian president is a self-described socialist and former member of the now-defunct M19 guerrilla organization.
He invoked his past involvement with the group while warning that detaining him would “unleash the jaguar of the people.”
M19 was responsible for a series of deadly terrorist attacks in Colombia, including the 1985 siege of the Bogotá Justice Palace that left nearly 100 people dead, among them 11 Supreme Court justices.
Petro has repeatedly acknowledged and referenced his participation in the organization during his public career.
The late-night statement appeared to be a response to comments Trump made Sunday aboard Air Force One, where he sharply criticized Petro’s leadership and narcotics policy.
Speaking to reporters, Trump described Petro as a “sick man who likes making cocaine and selling it to the United States.”
“He has cocaine mills and cocaine factories,” Trump said.
“He’s not going to be doing it very long.”
Trump issued the warning just one day after U.S. forces captured former Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores during a special operation that led to their extradition to New York to face federal charges.
Earlier in the weekend, Trump had issued similar remarks, accusing Petro of profiting from “cocaine mills” and adding that the Colombian president “does have to watch his ass.”
In his early-morning essay, Petro insisted he would formally respond to what he called “Trump’s illegitimate threat” at a later time, before launching into an extended defense of his record and background.
Petro claimed he had “ordered the largest seizure of cocaine in the history of the world,” while also devoting significant time to recounting his history with M19.
“My movement, M19, previously taking up insurgent arms, won the first relative vote by lists of elected constituents by the people,” he wrote, portraying the guerrilla group’s later political participation as a democratic evolution.
He then issued a direct warning tied to any potential U.S. action.
“If you detain a president that a good part of my people loves and respects, you will unleash the jaguar of the people,” Petro wrote.
“Although I have not been a soldier, I know about war and clandestine operations,” he continued.
“I swore not to touch a weapon again since the 1989 peace agreement, but for the Fatherland I will take up arms again, which I do not want to do.”
Petro also defended his personal finances and denied accusations of corruption, declaring:
“I am not illegitimate, nor am I a narco; I just have as my assets my family home, which I pay still with my salary.
“My bank withdrawals have been published.
“Nobody can say that I spent more than my salary. I am not greedy.”
The Colombian leader previously attempted to quell corruption allegations by publicly releasing portions of his expenditures in November, a move that instead triggered controversy after documents revealed lavish spending on international trips, including at the Ménage Strip Club in Lisbon in 2023.
Petro went on to say he had called upon his supporters to mobilize in the event of any attempt to detain him.
“I have an enormous confidence in my people, and that is why I have asked the people to defend the president from any illegitimate violent act against him,” he wrote.
“The way of defending me is to take power in all the municipalities of the country.
“The order to the public forces is to not shoot at the people, and yes, at the invader.”
In a separate post Sunday night, Petro said he did not “know if Maduro is good or bad, or even if he is a drug trafficker.”
He claims that Maduro’s name did not appear in Colombian records, despite later acknowledging accusations against the Venezuelan strongman, which he dismissed as political attacks from “the generals of the Venezuelan opposition … seeking to override the popular vote.”
Petro continues to recognize Maduro as Venezuela’s legitimate ruler, even after disputed elections in 2018 and 2024.
Mounting international evidence shows that opposition candidate Edmundo González won the most recent vote following independent tally-gathering efforts led by opposition figure María Corina Machado.
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