Colombian President Gustavo Petro speaks to the media during the Colombian regional elections in Bogota on Oct. 29, 2023. (Chepa Beltran/Long Visual Press/Abaca Press/TNS)

(Tribune News Service) — Colombia said it’s acting “decisively” against transnational organized crime after a senior U.S. official described the country’s president as being sympathetic to drug traffickers and gang members.

Operations against the Tren de Aragua gang have “significantly weakened” its consolidation in Bogota and thwarted its expansion plans, Colombia’s Foreign Affairs Ministry said in a statement. On Saturday, a leader of the Clan del Golfo known as Chirimoya was killed during a joint operation with the country’s police and U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, it also said.

The Colombian government was responding to remarks by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem that her hour-and-a-half meeting late last month with President Gustavo Petro had been “contentious.” According to Noem, Petro said during the encounter that some cartel members were his friends and that Tren de Aragua members are “just people that needed more love and more understanding.”

The Colombian foreign ministry responded: “You can’t build strong relationships on incorrect statements.”

This is the second spat between the countries since President Donald Trump began his second term. On Jan 26, Petro refused to allow U.S. military planes carrying Colombian migrants being deported from the U.S. to land in the country, which led Trump to announce sweeping tariffs on the Andean nation, before abruptly withdrawing the threat.

Noem’s visit in late March came after Colombian Foreign Affairs Minister Laura Sarabia told Bloomberg she intends to reset diplomacy with the U.S. after that brief tariff war.

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