BOGOTA, Colombia — Intelligence “is not meant to kill,” Colombian President Gustavo Petro told NBC News on Wednesday, explaining his decision to stop sharing information with the United States in confrontation fatal strikes on boats suspected of carrying illegal drugs.
Describing President Donald Trump as a “barbarian” who “wants to scare us”, Petro, a former Marxist revolutionary and one of the few international leaders ready to openly criticize his American counterpart called the US military buildup in the Caribbean “undoubtedly an aggression against Latin America.”
Colombia “will not hand over this information because we will cooperate with a crime against humanity,” he told NBC News at the presidential palace in Bogota. confirming the decision announced earlier this week.
Acknowledging that “the most important thing is intelligence” in the fight against the drug trade, he added: “The more we coordinate intelligence, the better. That's what I do. But intelligence is not about killing.”
The White House did not immediately respond to NBC News' request for comment.
Tensions between Trump and Peter have risen sharply in recent weeks over the issue US military attacks on boats suspected of carrying illegal drugs in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific, killing dozens of people. There have been at least 19 strikes so far, according to Reuters.
Trump justified them, saying the United States was in “armed conflict” with drug cartels and claiming the boats were operated by foreign terrorist organizations that were flooding American cities with drugs.
But his administration has offered no evidence of those claims, and lawmakers, including Republicans, have demanded more information about who is being targeted and the legal justification for the strikes.
Trump named Peter “leader of illegal drugs” on Truth Social last month, accusing him of being directly involved in drug trafficking and working with human traffickers.
After Peter called the US strike “murder” in a post on XTrump said he would cut aid and raise tariffs on Colombia. The Treasury Department subsequently imposed sanctions on his Colombian counterpart and members of his family.
Then this week, Peter announced he was suspending intelligence sharing with Washington.
United Kingdom also stopped sharing intelligence over concerns about the legality of the U.S. strikes, two sources familiar with the matter told NBC News.
And French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrault also said at the start of the G7 foreign ministers' meeting in Canada on Tuesday that the strikes “violated international law” and affected French territories in the region.
Petro did not say definitively that there were no drugs on the boats that were recently attacked. “Maybe, maybe not. We don't know,” he said. “In due process, in the civilized way people are treated, they are arrested and taken into custody.”
“They are bad boatmen, they know how to drive a boat, bandits hire them because they are poor. But bandits don’t sit on boats,” he said. “Then when one of these missiles arrives [it] kills that boatman. It doesn't kill a drug dealer.”
Peter strongly rejected Trump's personal accusations, calling the president a “loser” and suggesting that he was misled by other US officials on this issue. “He's lost on the issue of really analyzing what's happening with cocaine in Colombia.”
Peter, who considers himself a left-wing revolutionary, added: “He is a barbarian, but anyone can change.”
Colombia's president is not the only leader in the region under pressure. Trump has also singled out the President of neighboring Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro, as the target of his ire and has accused him of complicity in drug trafficking.
The tense standoff between the United States and Venezuela escalated after Trump sent an aircraft carrier strike group to the Caribbean and confirmed he had approved CIA covert operations inside the country. Critics say the move could be a prelude to an attempt to remove Maduro from office.
Trump has not yet confirmed any covert action against Colombia, and Peter has struck a defiant tone about Trump's recent regional moves and the possibility of war.
“He wants to scare us. Fear is not the same as facts,” Petro said, although he did not endorse Maduro.
Asked whether Maduro was the legitimate leader, Peter replied: “No, I believe there has been no legitimate leadership for some time.”
Richard Engel, Mark Smith and Erica Angulo reported from Bogota. Babak Dekhganpishe reported from New York.
