Trump meets with Colombia’s Petro after diplomatic row over cartels

The leaders held talks in the White House following a public spat over US strikes on alleged drug-smuggling boats

US President Donald Trump held talks with Colombian President Gustavo Petro in the White House on Tuesday, just weeks after the leaders traded insults over drug trafficking and an American military raid in Venezuela.

The US revoked Petro’s visa last year after he denounced Trump’s strikes on alleged cartel boats in the Caribbean as “barbaric” and argued that deportations of Colombian nationals by US immigration officials violated human rights. Trump, in turn, labeled Petro a “drug-trafficking leader.” Both struck a conciliatory tone ahead of Petro’s trip to Washington.

“He and I weren’t exactly the best of friends, but I wasn’t insulted because I never met him. I didn’t know him at all. And we got along very well,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. He added that the leaders discussed sanctions and were working to combat drug cartels, without elaborating.

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Petro said the talks were “very positive” despite their differences. “We may be very different from a civilizational or historical point of view, but what we share is a love of freedom. And that’s where the conversation began, with the idea that a pact for freedom could be made,” he said, as cited by the BBC.

The Colombian presidential office said Petro provided Trump with “information and names of criminal structures” linked to the drug trade and presented his country as “a strategic ally” in the fight against cartels. Petro also spoke about the “historic results” his government has achieved in seizing drugs from criminal groups.

Petro, who had condemned the abduction of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro by US commandos in early January, urged Trump to normalize relations with Caracas, according to his office.

Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, pleaded not guilty to drug trafficking charges when they were brought before a New York judge last month.