BUENOS AIRES, January 5. /TASS/. Colombian President Gustavo Petro said he would be prepared to take up arms to defend his country and expressed confidence that Colombians would rally behind him if the United States attempted to capture him, as it did the Venezuelan leader, Nicolas Maduro.
"Although I was never a soldier, I know what war and guerilla warfare are," Petro wrote on X. "I swore never to take up arms again after the 1989 peace agreement, but for the sake of the motherland I would once again take up weapons I do not like," he wrote on X. In his youth, Petro was a member of the left-wing guerrilla group 19th of April Movement (M-19).
Petro also expressed confidence the Colombian people would stand up for him. "If they detain a president whom a significant part of my people loves and respects, they will unleash the people’s jaguar," the Colombian leader said.
He added that he had ordered the dismissal of several colonels from the police intelligence service for "providing false information harmful to the state." "I hope [US Secretary of State Marco] Rubio does not believe these fabrications," Petro said.
Earlier, US President Donald Trump did not rule out the possibility of a military operation in Colombia, citing the fight against drug trafficking.