Gustavo Petro Celebrates Trump Meeting: ‘We Didn’t Hit or Scratch Each Other’

Far-left President of Colombia Gustavo Petro on Tuesday disclosed details of his meeting with President Trump at the White House, stating, “We didn’t hit or scratch each other; we look for solutions.”

Petro, Colombia’s first leftist president ever, met with President Trump on Wednesday afternoon in an encounter largely described as amiable. The meeting followed an entire year’s worth of Petro boasting a fierce and highly controversial hostile stance toward President Trump.

The Colombian president, among several other actions, single-handedly caused a major diplomatic impasse after refusing a U.S. deportation flight carrying Colombian citizens, accused Trump of being an “accomplice” to the “genocide” in Gaza, called for humanity to “get rid of Trump,” and publicly called for the U.S. military to disobey President Trump as commander-in-chief — to which the State Department responded by revoking his U.S. visa. Petro had also condemned Trump over the U.S. law enforcement operation on January 3 to arrest Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro.

President Trump has been highly critical of Petro, a cocaine legalization advocate, over his lenient drug trafficking policies, which have resulted in record-breaking levels of cocaine production in Colombia according to the United Nations. In January, Trump warned Petro that he should “watch his ass.” Days later, both heads of state held a telephone conversation just as Petro was about to participate in an anti-Trump rally in Bogotá, during which Trump invited him to the White House.

“A path is born where different powers can meet. We didn’t hit or scratch each other; we look for solutions,” Petro reportedly said to the press after meeting with Trump.

On Wednesday, the Colombian presidency published a statement summarizing Petro’s statements to the press after the meeting. Petro said the encounter occurred in a context of “fears and expectations” and marked by “different perceptions of a government.”

According to the Colombian presidency, Petro affirmed that the meeting with Trump allowed to find a “common bridge” between both countries, where common strategic subjects and regional cooperation were touched upon.

Petro also discussed the subject of “green” energy project proposals for western Venezuela, which neighbors Colombia. The Colombian president suggested to “reactivate” that area of Venezuela with “green” projects aiming to eradicate illicit crop fields in the Catatumbo region, an area plagued with Marxist terrorist guerilla violence.

“I spoke about clean energy to revive Venezuela. To boost western Venezuela. Energy that prevents gas from being burned in flares,” Petro said.

“It became clear, without a fight, that western Venezuela can be revitalized if we are allowed to remove the coca leaf fields from Catatumbo,” he asserted.

On the subject of fighting against drug trafficking. Petro suggested the establishment of a joint “Colombian-Venezuelan” military security initiative against drug trafficking and asserted to Trump that “those who bowed down to drug trafficking will be defeated.”

Colombian Defense Minister Pedro Sánchez detailed to Noticias Caracol on Wednesday that Petro gave Trump a list of drug traffickers who are being targeted by Colombian authorities, which includes highly wanted figures such as FARC commander Néstor Gregorio Vera Fernández, also known as Ivan Mordisco, and ELN top-brass member Gustavo Aníbal Giraldo, also known as Pablito.

Speaking to Caracol Radio’s Julio Sánchez Cristo, the Colombian president disclosed further details of what he and Trump discussed and rated the meeting a “nine out of ten.” Petro assured that it was an honor to be at the White House, and said that he did not know it, but “now I saw it as more beautiful and I told him [Trump] he was a good designer, which he is, he changed the time tunnel. I really liked it.”

According to Petro, he encountered “a government meeting at the highest level. The guests at the meeting had changed; I was served a delicious Colombian red wine. There were different perceptions within the government. The meeting took place between governments, not between factions.”

Last week, Petro, during another controversial speech, said that he would ask Trump — a known teetotaler — if he wants to drink “wine or whiskey.”

The Colombian president revealed that President Trump asked him if he was “scared” due to Maduro’s capture and that he was interested to know his perception of the January 3 law enforcement operation in Caracas.

“I told him I was used to war. We didn’t go into the subject any further, but he asked me about Delcy [Rodríguez] and I told him the truth: I was talking to the opposition and the rational pro-government forces,” Petro said.

Petro also revealed to Caracol Radio that he asked President Trump’s help to resolve an ongoing diplomatic impasse and trade dispute between Colombia and Ecuador after President Daniel Noboa accused the neighboring Colombian government of not cooperating in the fight against drug trafficking and illegal mining. Petro asked Trump to serve as a mediator between him and Noboa.

“I asked President Trump to help me in that regard, that since we had been friends with Noboa, we should become friends again, and he said, ‘Well, I’ll call him to try to reconstitute a triple alliance against drug trafficking.'”

Petro presented a signed copy of President Trump’s book The Art of the Deal that Trump gifted him, in which he wrote, “You are great.”

“What did Trump mean by this dedication?” Petro gloated. “I don’t understand English very well.”

Trump also gifted Petro a signed MAGA hat that Petro then altered by including the letter “s.” Petro said that he proposed the change to Trump so that the hat reads “Make Americas Great Again.”

“It seems he liked it. Americas,” Petro wrote on social media.

Petro, for his part, gifted Trump an ancestral craft figure of a jaguar made by Colombian artisan Marcelino Chasoy from the Sibundoy Valley. Colombia’s state-owned Radio Nacional detailed that for the indigenous peoples of the Amazon, the jaguar is a symbol of power and protection. Petro has used jaguar allegories in the past to threaten the United States.

“In spiritual life, many shamans transform themselves into jaguars as an expression of strength and wisdom. This work took approximately three months to complete and represents the cultural and spiritual richness of the native peoples of Colombia,” Radio Nacional wrote on social media.

Petro gifted first lady Melania Trump a fully handcrafted dress designed by Colombian indigenous fashion designer Flor Imbacuán, who detailed to Caracol Radio that the dress combines sheep’s wool, natural silk, cotton, bamboo, linen, cashmere, and alpaca fleece.

Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.