Petro in the Oval Office : Reason Prevailed Over Passion

By: Guillermo Rico Reyes

And what the entire country wanted, but saw with difficulty, happened. The friction between Colombian President Gustavo Petro and his US counterpart Donald Trump had begun several months earlier:
The opening salvo was fired by the American leader when, shackled as in the era of slavery, he deported a group of Colombians on one of his military cargo planes.
Offended by the way they had been humiliated, President Petro refused to receive them and stated he would only allow such deportations when the Colombians being returned to their country were transported with the respect that human beings deserve.
From that moment on, relations became increasingly difficult and tense… to the personal clashes between the two leaders was added the genocide that Israel, with American backing, was carrying out against the Palestinian people.
At the annual meeting of presidents on the United Nations stage, President Petro’s speech demanded respect for the Palestinian people and called for punishment of those responsible for the massacre. As if that weren’t enough, and recalling his days as a leftist activist leader, President Petro took to the streets of New York and joined many people demanding respect for Palestinian lives; there, with a megaphone in hand, he asked the US military not to obey its president’s orders.
Then things worsened even more. Very few days after Petro’s return to Colombia, Trump mobilized his most powerful ships to the Pacific and Atlantic oceans with orders to shoot all boats transiting that sector, thus provoking the murder of about 75 people, apparently fishermen from Venezuela and Colombia.
Then came the kidnapping of Nicolás Maduro and the threat that he would come for Petro, with increasingly brazen language: “Petro has to watch his back because I’m coming for him.”
Petro’s response was with his people; millions in all cities took to the streets to tell their president they backed him. But thanks to intense diplomatic work by Colombian Ambassador in Washington Daniel García-Peña, under the guidance of Colombian Chancellor Rosa Villavicencio, they achieved what already seemed impossible: a call from President Donald Trump to President Gustavo Petro.
Fifty minutes of dialogue were enough to open the door and build bridges of understanding. The possibility was raised for the dialogue to continue at the White House, where President Petro would have the chance to tell Mr. Donald Trump many things about Colombian reality.
That call, it must be acknowledged, was a true relief for an entire people who, that same day and hour, were in public squares demonstrating their unrestricted support for their leader… So when Gustavo Petro announced there had been a call between the two leaders and then read the message the American ruler posted on his social media… the country erupted in applause: “Speaking with President Petro was a true honor.”
The appointment was set for February 3rd, and very punctually, the now global leader and human rights defender Gustavo Petro was at the White House door at the agreed time.
What happened inside is not known, but both emerged with very positive comments about each other. Undoubtedly, the intelligence, diplomacy, and kindness of President Petro, added to his already characteristic personality of confronting things as they should be, eclipsed Donald Trump, who from the first moment their eyes met and hands were extended showed the respect our president deserved.
The world only saw photos of a meeting attended, besides the two diplomatic corps, by a figure who has been the most dangerous opponent of the government of change: the Colombian Bernardo Moreno, who uses the name Berni Moreno, now a Republican senator in the United States and one of those responsible for Colombia’s far-right managing to meet on several occasions with the Trump government or its closest collaborators, aiming to destroy the image of the Colombian president…
They speculated against President Gustavo Petro, especially on the issue of drug trafficking, portraying him as sympathetic to the business, contrary to the success Colombian authorities have achieved with seizures totaling more than two thousand seven hundred tons of cocaine, the largest in world history.
Upon entering the White House, the Colombian president was seen with a rather bulging folder containing a large number of documents and evidence of the struggles and triumphs the new Colombian government has achieved against drug trafficking, but also lists of Colombian drug traffickers scattered around the entire world and their partners of many nationalities. These documents were left in the possession of the American leader.
Contrary to all forecasts, Trump went out to meet his colleague. The two walked some corridors of the White House where portraits of those who have been presidents of the Northern country hang; Petro pointed to several of the paintings and exchanged opinions with his American counterpart. What they said is not known, only photos of that event were shown… later, other photos when, already in the chairs corresponding to the leaders, two smiling people were seen, relaxed, with gestures of great kindness. Another photo showed all attendees, including the last-minute guest Bernardo Moreno, as already explained.
Contrary to what members of far-right parties in Colombia had predicted, the meeting was not 20 minutes or 40 minutes; it lasted over two hours, hinting that the dialogue was undoubtedly more optimistic than forecast.
There were no mocking comments like those made at the Volodymyr Zelenskyy meeting or dismissive ones, as with Argentine President Milei.
There were also no joint statements. The departure was silent, and while the press waited at one of the White House doors for the Colombian president to exit, he left through another where there were no journalists.
Several hours later, a press conference was called where something, not much, was learned about the meeting’s outcome, of course… all within a limited restriction of topics discussed, which had undoubtedly been agreed upon in advance.
Then other photos emerged: the simplest but perhaps most important was the card President Petro received that said, “Gustavo, you are a great man. I love Colombia,” which was published alongside a photo, apparently of farewell, where Trump holds Petro’s hand, but in a completely trusting attitude of respect and friendship.
There at the press conference, he recounted how, at the end of the meeting, he received from the American leader the red cap he usually gives to visitors, printed with a phrase speaking of America’s greatness. Then Petro used one of the many pens on the desk and, on that newly received cap, added an ‘S’ to ‘America’ to convey that the greatness was of the Americas. Trump then smiled with great pleasure. He also signed the book about Trump’s biography, which he had learned about thanks to Colombian Ambassador in Washington Daniel García-Peña. It is necessary to recall that our ambassador in Washington has advanced studies on US history, which of course facilitated the meeting and its results.
According to the statements by the President of the Colombians, the most important topics were security, key in everything related to drug policy, the Peace policy itself, migration, the issue of Venezuela, stability in Colombia, and matters associated with Ecuador. None of these points were elaborated upon further.