Colombian President Gustavo Petro rejected being involved in drug-trafficking, an argument given by the Trump administration to sanction him, claiming that U.S. counterpart Donald Trump is being shown a "backward narrative."
Speaking to CNN, Petro said he is heavily involved in fighting drug trafficking but his "strategy is different" because he wants "less violence in Colombia."
"I don't attack the rural population because it could spark a new war. I try to get young people out of the conflict," he added.
Petro went on to say that the "reality" he discusses "doesn't reach Trump," and he is shown to his U.S. counterpart "as a drug lord when I have risked my life."
In another passage of the interview, Petro said Venezuela's authoritarian President Nicolas Maduro is not involved in drug trafficking even though the Trump administration has designated the Cartel de los Soles, which officials accuse Maduro and other top officials of leading, as a terrorist organization.
"(Oil) is at the heart of the matter," Petro said. "A negotiation about oil – I believe that is Trump's logic. He is not thinking about the democratization of Venezuela let alone the narco-trafficking, they are going to get the oil almost for free because that is what the anecdotal evidence suggests. Trump is not negotiating with maduro when it comes to drugs because Trump is not a fool."
Petro then said Maduro has a "lack of democracy" problem, but he is not a drug-trafficker. "No Colombian investigation – which is independent of the president and going back to years when I was not president – shows any link between Colombian drug trafficking and Maduro."
Finally, asked if he had a message to the American people, Petro replied, "My message is the one they give to all members of the United States special forces: Your function, as they say in the oaths, is to fight against oppression. I repeated that on the streets in the United States, and it also cost me," Petro said.
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