(Updates with background on US-Colombia relations in paragraph 3) Oct 19 (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump called Colombian President Gustavo Petro an "illegal drug leader" on Sunday and said the United States would cease "large scale payments and subsidies" to the South American nation. "The purpose of this drug production is the sale of massive amounts of product into the United States, causing death, destruction, and havoc," he said in a Truth Social post. Reuters could not immediately establish which payments Trump was referring to. Colombia was once among the largest recipients of U.S. aid in the Western Hemisphere, but the flow of money was suddenly curtailed this year by the shuttering of USAID, the American government's humanitarian assistance arm. The Colombian embassy in Washington, D.C. did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The U.S. State Department referred questions to the White House, which did not immediately respond to a query. Relations between Bogota and Washington have frayed since Trump returned to office. Last month the United States revoked Petro's visa after he joined a pro-Palestinian demonstration in New York and urged U.S. soldiers to disobey Trump's orders. Last year, Petro pledged to tame coca-growing regions in Colombia with massive social and military intervention, but the strategy has brought little success. In September, Trump designated countries such as Afghanistan, Bolivia, Burma, Colombia and Venezuela among those the United States believes to have "failed demonstrably" in upholding counternarcotics agreements during the past year. He blamed Colombia's political leadership for the failure to meet its drug control obligations. "Petro … is an illegal drug leader strongly encouraging the massive production of drugs," said Trump in his post on Sunday, saying U.S. payments and subsidies to Colombia were a rip-off. "AS OF TODAY, THESE PAYMENTS, OR ANY OTHER FORM OF PAYMENT, OR SUBSIDIES, WILL NO LONGER BE MADE," he wrote in capital letters. (Reporting by David Ljunggren; Editing by Nia Williams)
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