Far-left President of Colombia Gustavo Petro on Thursday suggested that the men who traffic drugs on boats should be called “drug trafficking workers” instead of drug traffickers, as the latter is too insulting.
Petro issued his linguistic suggestion during an international press conference defending his administration’s “fight” against drug-trafficking and related policies — which has so far resulted in record-breaking cocaine production in Colombia according to the latest report from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).
Petro issued a new round of criticism against President Donald Trump and his administration’s efforts to curb the flow of drugs entering the United States. Petro once again condemned the U.S. military presence in Caribbean international waters, accusing it of allegedly committing “extrajudicial executions” via precision strikes that have so far resulted in several U.S.-bound drug-laden vessels neutralized and at least 37 drug traffickers killed.
Petro, referring to the men on board the struck drug-laden vessels, said they should not be called drug traffickers, but rather, “drug trafficking workers.”
“Therefore, to call these boatmen drug traffickers, in my opinion, it is not idiomatic; they are drug trafficking workers,” Petro said. “Just as there are farmers who end up providing them with supplies through coca leaves in exchange for money and because of their poverty.”
Petro justified his reasoning on the grounds that, in the Caribbean, “where I was born, among other places,” shortcomings are so severe that “many people who work in fishing and use boats for tourism end up providing services to drug traffickers.”
The Colombian government has reportedly claimed that at least one of the men presumptively killed during one of the precision strikes against the drug trafficking vessels was a Colombian man identified as Alejandro Carranza. Although Petro claims that Carranza was a “simple fisherman,” local and international outlets reported this week that Carranza was implicated in the theft of 264 firearms from a police department in the Colombian city of Santa Marta in 2015.
“We only have the Santa Marta case. The Santa Marta case is dubious. He is a fisherman from a family of fishermen, traditional, as we call them, but he may have been recruited very intermittently and due to lack of financial resources,” Petro reportedly said on Thursday.
“And this is the fundamental point, lack of financial resources for work other than transporting cocaine to the United States. A boat like that would never make it there, especially in the Pacific,” he continued.
Gustavo Petro is a staunch supporter of the legalization of cocaine who, according to former members of his administration, allegedly suffers from unspecified drug addiction. In recent weeks, Petro has intensified his animosity towards President Trump’s policies, most notably, the Trump administration’s ongoing efforts to curb the flow of drugs entering the United States.
Petro, during Thursday’s press conference, once again criticized President Trump for authorizing the military strikes against the drug-trafficking vessels in the region, claiming that “from the perspective of the United Nations Human Rights Commission resolution, what is being done is absurd and constitutes a violation of citizens’ human rights.”
The Colombian president claimed that Trump had “slandered” him after Trump accused him of being an “illegal drug leader” and announced the suspension of all payments to Colombia, citing the surge in cocaine production in Colombia during Petro’s administration.
Petro reportedly said that he believes Trump is “uninformed” about criticism allegedly issued at the UNODC’s latest report, which revealed a dramatic 50-percent increase in coca bush — cocaine’s main ingredient — in Colombia during 2023. According to Petro, UNODC’s report “triggered the crisis just when [drug] seizures were at their peak, so we took it as an insult.”
Petro urged for President Trump’s “removal” this week at the end of an unhinged two-hour-long interview with Univisión President Daniel Coronell. Petro claimed that Trump’s presence at the head of the U.S government represents an “obstacle to democracy, science, and truth” in addition to numerous other strange remarks and accusations. After the interview, Coronell said on social media, “I’m leaving more worried than when I arrived.”
“Humanity has a first offramp, and it is to change Trump. In various ways. Perhaps the easiest way may be through Trump himself. If not,” Petro said during the interview, and snapped his fingers, “get rid of Trump.”
On Tuesday, Petro called for a rally scheduled for Tuesday afternoon in Bogotá as an act of defense against “a monster like Trump.” In addition to serving as a “defense” against Trump, the rally, scheduled at 4:00 p.m. local time, will also see Petro launch the efforts of his leftist government for a constituent assembly with the intent to rewrite the nation’s constitution. The event will also serve as a “reaction” to the recent acquittal of conservative former President Álvaro Uribe Velez.
Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.
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