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Despite Trump-Petro feud, US-Colombia anti-drug partnership remains strong

<i>Schneyder Mendoza/AFP/Getty Images via CNN Newsource</i><br/>This aerial view shows the city of Cucuta near to the Venezuelan border in Colombia on January 4.

By CNN Newsource

Published January 8, 2026 4:30 am

By Evan Perez, David Culver, Abel Alvarado, CNN

(CNN) — In recent weeks, President Donald Trump and Colombian President Gustavo Petro have traded insults and threats that have escalated their public feud.

On the ground in Colombia, however, one of the US government’s closest counter-narcotics relationships in the region continues unabated, for now.

Officials at the Colombian national police’s anti-narcotics directorate and the US Drug Enforcement Administration tell CNN they have a close working relationship that includes the exchange of intelligence and having US agents embedded with Colombian forces. The result, the officials say, is record drug seizures and increased pressure on cocaine producers and trafficking organizations.

But there is increasing concern that DEA personnel in Colombia and elsewhere in the region could face safety risks as a result of Trump’s comments about the Colombian president and the Nicolás Maduro raid in Venezuela, according to a person familiar with the agency’s operations.

“This year we have seized 446 tons of cocaine hydrochloride. This means we are seizing more than one ton of cocaine every day,” Colombian Brig. Gen. Ricardo Sánchez-Silvestre told CNN in an interview this week, who called the tally of seizures as “historic.”

“Likewise, we have destroyed more than 3,000 facilities used for producing these substances and narcotics,” Sánchez said. “And what has been important here, first, is the coordinated work with our military forces, and second, the international cooperation with different agencies, with the government of the United States. That cooperation has been essential.”

Trump said he spoke with Petro by phone Wednesday, and struck a seemingly amicable tone, suggesting he even invited Petro to the White House. It’s a dramatic reversal from the pair’s war of words over the past several months. Trump has repeatedly lashed out at Petro, claiming that Colombia isn’t stopping the production and trafficking of drugs to the US, and adding in an October social media post that the flow of drugs continues “despite large scale payments and subsidies from the USA that are nothing more than a long term rip off of America.”

Petro has criticized Trump, including the US military operation to depose Maduro, the Venezuelan leader. Trump has warned that Petro should “watch his ass,” suggesting he could suffer the same fate as Maduro.

That stands in contrast to the view from the Colombian and US agents working to deter the trafficking.

US Drug Enforcement Administration agents highly regard the Colombian National Police, including its specialized DIRAN anti-narcotics unit which has DEA agents embedded for joint missions, current and former law enforcement officials told CNN.

In recent years, the DEA presence in Colombia has grown to become the agency’s largest foreign operation, and agents say that has yielded fruit as Colombia has boosted drug seizures and arrests.

So far the war of words between the US and Colombian leaders hasn’t changed that, a person familiar with agency’s operations said.

The DEA didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Trump has said the US would cut off financial aid to Colombia, but it’s not clear what has transpired through. The US has provided about $210 million in assistance to Colombia this fiscal year, including about $31 million in agricultural support, according to data from the US Department of State.

Sánchez says nothing has changed.

“Yes, that assistance has continued and has been fundamental, because they support our aviation, they support us with training, they support us with technology,” Sánchez said in an interview.

“But most importantly, the exchange of information – this exchange of information has allowed us to understand the phenomenon of drug trafficking, identify organizations and leaders, affect their criminal finances, and seize their assets, which is, let’s say, what motivates these drug‑trafficking organizations,” he added.

Current and former US law enforcement officials say the Colombia relationship stands in contrast to the DEA’s relationship with Mexico, which at times has been strained. At the end of the first Trump term and early Biden administration, Mexico for a period refused to grant visas to DEA agents after the agency’s 2020 arrest of a former Mexican defense minister.

The sometimes difficult relationship with Mexican authorities has affected the ability to stanch the flow of drugs, according to US officials.

Sánchez says stopping the cooperation would be damaging to both countries.

“Well, if this cooperation between our two countries did not exist, criminal organizations dedicated to drug trafficking would definitely be the ones winning. They would strengthen their finances and their armed groups, and that would be catastrophic,” he said. “This is historic. These are the highest figures in the last 30 years since we began this fight against drug trafficking. 446 tons of cocaine – billions of doses that were prevented from being sold on the streets in the countries where these substances are consumed.”