Colombia and US vow joint fight against drug-smuggling gangs

Colombia's leftist President Gustavo Petro agreed with his US counterpart Donald Trump to take "joint action" against cocaine-smuggling guerrillas on the border with Venezuela, Bogotá's interior minister said on Thursday.

The two leaders held their first phone call on Wednesday, de-escalating tensions after Trump threatened military action against Colombia following the ouster of Venezuela's leftist leader Nicolás Maduro by US forces.

Trump and Petro "committed to taking joint actions" against the National Liberation Army (ELN), Colombia's last remaining major armed rebel group, Interior Minister Armando Benedetti said in an interview with Blu Radio.

Colombia accuses the ELN of launching attacks and kidnappings of Colombian soldiers and retreating to rear-base locations in Venezuela.

Petro asked Trump "to help strike hard at the ELN on the border" with Venezuela, Benedetti said.

He said the guerrillas must "be attacked in their rear" as well as on Colombian soil.

Colombia and Venezuela share a porous 2,200-kilometre border where various armed groups vie for control of the profits from drug trafficking, illegal mining and smuggling.

Petro tried to negotiate a peace settlement with the ELN after coming to power in 2022, but his attempts stalled.

He accepted Trump's invitation to meet in Washington, despite fierce exchanges over recent days in which Trump branded Petro a drug-trafficker and the Colombian leader vowed to take up arms against any US assault.

After Petro criticised the US for seizing Maduro in Caracas during a 3 January nighttime raid, Trump told Petro to "watch his *ss".

Trump accused Petro of being "a sick man who likes making cocaine and selling it to the United States."

Washington and Bogotá have enjoyed security cooperation for decades, but ties have deteriorated since Trump began his second term last January.

In November, Petro ordered his nation's security forces to stop sharing intelligence with the United States, unless the Trump administration stopped its strikes on suspected drug traffickers in the Caribbean.

In a message on X, Petro wrote that Colombia's military must immediately end "communications and other agreements with US security agencies."