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After several months of rising tension between them, Colombian President Gustavo Petro sat down with U.S. President Donald Trump in a closed-door meeting that lasted approximately two hours at the White House on Tuesday. The two leaders have exchanged threats and insults since Trump returned to office in 2025, with Petro harshly criticizing the U.S. bombing of boats at sea and for threatening the sovereignty of countries in Latin America. Both leaders took a much more conciliatory tone after their meeting, with Petro sharing a photo of them shaking hands alongside a handwritten note from Trump calling it an “honor” and adding, “I love Colombia.”

Colombian Senator Clara López Obregón, speaking to Democracy Now! from Bogotá, says the White House meeting was an important “repositioning” of the relationship, and cautions that the region needs a more coordinated response to “coercion” from the U.S. “Latin America, unfortunately, has been unable to structure meaningful and permanent instruments of collective action, so each country has to negotiate on its own from a position of weakness.”

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org. I’m Amy Goodman.

Colombian President Gustavo Petro sat down with President Trump in a closed-door meeting that lasted approximately two hours at the White House Tuesday, the first face-to-face encounter between the two leaders following months of tension and heated exchanges over the Trump administration’s military strikes on civilian boats in the Caribbean and the Pacific Ocean. Their talks also came a month after the U.S. attack on Venezuela and the abduction of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife in early January. Petro has urged for Maduro’s release and return to Venezuela.

After the White House meeting, Petro shared a photo on social media with a note, apparently handwritten by Trump, that said, quote, “Gustavo–A great........

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