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Thousands of people across the country expressed support for their president, Gustavo Petro, who spoke to President Donald Trump ahead of the rallies and struck a diplomatic but defiant tone.
Colombian President Gustavo Petro struck a relatively diplomatic tone Wednesday at a rally in Bogotá, where he spoke about the Trump administration's threats to launch military strikes against his country—but thousands of people who gathered in the Colombian capital and across the country were happy to say exactly what they thought of US President Donald Trump's recent attack on neighboring Venezuela and his saber-rattling across Latin America.
"He’s a maniac,” 67-year-old José Silva told the Guardian at a march in the border city of Cúcuta. “The US Congress needs to do something to get him out of the presidency... He’s a thug.”
“Trump is the devil," another marcher, Janet Chacón, told the outlet.
And demonstrators held English-language signs proclaiming, "Yankees Go Home!" as well as banners reading, “Fuera los yanquis!" or "Out with the Yanks!"
Colombians were rallying after Petro called for a mass mobilization days after Trump ordered a military attack in Venezuela, including a bombing and the abduction of President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores. Maduro and Flores have pleaded not guilty to narco-terrorism charges in a court in New York City, while Trump and other White House officials have made clear in recent days that their objective in Venezuela is not to stop drug trafficking—a crime in which the country is not significantly involved—but to take control of its oil reserves.
Colombians marched together with Venezuelans in Cúcuta, with one man telling Reuters, "If they kidnap your president, they kidnap the entire homeland."
Protesters gathered at the Simon Bolivar Bridge in Cucuta, Colombia, to demonstrate against US President Donald Trump, responding to a call by Colombian President Gustavo Petro under the slogan 'Colombia is free and sovereign' pic.twitter.com/y5FIMweCbN
— Reuters (@Reuters) January 8, 2026
Soon after invading Venezuela, Trump and other officials including Secretary of State Marco Rubio suggested they could soon attack other Latin Amercian countries and try to overthrow their leaders.
Officials in Cuba's socialist government, said Rubio, are "in a lot of trouble," while Trump said the US is "going to have to do something" about drug cartels operating in Mexico.
Regarding Colombia, Trump cited no evidence as he accused the left-wing Petro of "making cocaine and selling it to the United States" and said an invasion of the country "sounds good to me." Petro has not been linked to the drug trade in Colombia.
Petro has vehemently condemned Trump's escalation in Latin America in recent months and has accused the president of murder in the Caribbean, where the US has bombed dozens of boats and killed more than 100 people since September, accusing them of drug trafficking without releasing any evidence.
After the Venezuela attack and the threats toward other countries in the region, Petro warned that Trump had awakened a "jaguar," referring to the opposition of the public in Colombia and across Latin American regarding US imperialism.
After calling on Colombians to take to the streets, Petro spoke to Trump on the phone at the US president's request and accepted an invitation to the White House. Trump said it was "a great honor" to speak with the Colombian leader.
Petro told protesters in Bogotá that the speech he had planned to give had been "quite harsh."
“For 34 years, peace has been my priority,” he said. “And I know that peace is found through dialogue. That is why I accept President Trump’s proposal to talk.”
"If there is no dialogue, there is war. The history of Colombia has taught us that," the president added.
But he also made clear to thousands of supporters, many of whom carried placards with pictures of Petro, that “what happened in Venezuela was, in my opinion, illegal."
"We cannot lower our guard," he said. “Words need to be followed by deeds."
In Cúcuta, a teacher named Marta Jiménez denounced a number of European leaders who have refused to clearly condemn Trump's invasion of Venezuela's neighbor, even as legal scholars have said it was a clear violation of the United Nations Charter.
“They are leaving him to fly, free as a bird over every single country, to do whatever he likes," she said, expressing concern that Trump's next target "might be Nicaragua, Brazil, Ecuador, Peru—any of them."
En Colombia, la sociedad salió masivamente en 12 ciudades, para rechazar la injerencia y las amenazas del presidente de EEUU. Se trató de una jornada con mensajes en favor de la unidad de los pueblos de Nuestra América y El Caribe. @teleSURtv @TobarteleSUR @petrogustavo pic.twitter.com/0RD4QvjHsu
— teleSUR Colombia (@teleSURColombia) January 8, 2026
Protests were also held this week in countries including Argentina and Brazil, with demonstrators expressing solidarity with the rest of Latin America in light of Trump's threats and attacks.
“The message from the people of Latin America is: ‘Donald Trump, get your hands off Latin America,'" Brazilian Congressman Reimont Otoni said at a rally outside the US consulate in Rio de Janeiro. "Latin America isn’t the [United States'] backyard."
"If the United States attacks another NATO country, everything stops," said Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen.
With the Trump administration signaling that its kidnapping of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro could be followed by more military actions in countries President Donald Trump has threatened in the past, the prime minister of Denmark on Monday said his continued threats, however outlandish, were being taken seriously by her government.
"Unfortunately, I think the American president should be taken seriously when he says he wants Greenland," Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen told Danish public broadcaster DR.
Frederiksen emphasized that Denmark and Greenland, which is autonomous but part of the Danish kingdom, are also resolute in their repeatedly stated opposition to Trump's goal of taking over the mineral-rich Arctic island nation, and their commitment to fighting back against any military action by the US.
"I have made it very clear where the kingdom of Denmark stands, and Greenland has repeatedly said that it does not want to be part of the United States," she added. "If the United States attacks another [North Atlantic Treaty Organization] country, everything stops."
On Sunday, Trump repeated that "we need Greenland from the standpoint of national security," drawing rebukes both from Frederiksen and the prime minister of Greenland, Jens-Frederik Nielsen, who called Trump's rhetoric about the country "completely unacceptable."
"Our country is not an object in the rhetoric of a superpower," said Nielsen in a social media post. "We are a people. A country. A democracy. That must be respected. Especially by close and loyal friends."
"Threats, pressure, and talk of annexation have no place between friends," he added. "This is not how you talk to a people who have repeatedly demonstrated responsibility, stability, and loyalty. Enough is enough. No more pressure. No more insinuations. No more fantasies about annexation."
Frederiksen and Nielsen's comments followed remarks from Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio about potential US interventions in a number of countries that the administration has previously threatened.
"Enough is enough. No more pressure. No more insinuations. No more fantasies about annexation."
Rubio told NBC's "Meet the Press" on Sunday that Cuba is "in a lot of trouble."
While declining to detail the White House's plans for the country, where the Cuban-American secretary of state has long advocated for regime change, Rubio said Cuba had been "propping up" Maduro before Saturday's military operation in which the US bombed Venezuela and arrested the president and his wife.
“If I lived in Havana and I was in the government, I’d be concerned," said Rubio.
The secretary of state echoed comments from Trump, who said soon after Maduro's capture that "Cuba is going to be something we’ll end up talking about."
"It’s very similar [to Venezuela] in the sense that we want to help the people in Cuba, but we want to also help the people that were forced out of Cuba and are living in this country," said Trump.
The president also expanded his threats in Latin America to Mexico and Colombia, whose leaders he accused of allowing the drug trade to flourish in their countries.
Trump accused Colombian President Gustavo Petro of having "cocaine mills."
"He’s making cocaine. They’re sending it into the United States. So he does have to watch his ass," Trump said, adding that a US military operation against Colombia "sounds good to me."
The Trump administration's claims that it aims to protect the US from drug trafficking have been central to its rapid escalation in Venezuela in recent months. While accusing Maduro, Petro, and Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum of allowing drugs to flow into the US, the president pardoned former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández, who was convicted to ensuring more than 400 tons of cocaine were sent to the US.
Petro responded Monday with a warning to Trump, should he carry out an operation like the kidnapping of Maduro.
“If you detain a president whom much of my people want and respect, you will unleash the people’s jaguar," said Petro.
In Denmark, the government was reportedly treating Trump's latest comments about the strategically located Greenland with urgency, with one official at the political risk consulting firm Eurasia Group writing in a LinkedIn post that "the Danish government is in full crisis mode."
"A possible US intervention in Greenland is now the biggest source of risk to the transatlantic alliance and intra-NATO and intra-EU cohesion, arguably far greater than those presented by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine," said Mujtaba Rahman, managing director for Europe at the Eurasia Group.
Other European leaders signaled their intention to come to the defense of Greenland and Denmark should Trump take military action against the Arctic island.
European Commission spokesperson Anitta Hipper said regarding Trump's latest comments that the European Union "will continue to uphold the principles of national sovereignty, territorial integrity, and the inviolability of borders and the [United Nations] Charter.”
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer also expressed support for Frederiksen's demand that Trump "stop the threats against a historically close ally and against another country and another people who have said very clearly that they are not for sale."
"I stand with her, and she’s right about the future of Greenland," Starmer told the Guardian on Monday. "Greenland and the kingdom of Denmark are to decide the future of Greenland, and only Greenland and the kingdom of Denmark."
But European leaders have been far more muted in their comments about the US military intervention that is already underway in a sovereign nation: Venezuela.
A spokesperson for 10 Downing Street suggested the UK would abstain in the UN Security Council vote on a resolution condemning the Venezuela attack, and declined to denounce Trump's threats against Cuba and Colombia.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said that "the legal assessment of the US intervention is complex," while EU foreign affairs chief Kaja Kallas called for "restraint" but noted that "the EU has repeatedly stated that Maduro lacks legitimacy."
The EU Green Party called on leaders in the bloc to "defend international law consistently."
French entrepreneur Arnaud Bertrand added that "when EU leaders legitimize what Trump did in Venezuela, they're preemptively justifying him taking over Greenland, as he keeps saying he will."
"The 'Trump corollary' to the Monroe Doctrine—applied in recent hours with violent force over the skies of Caracas—is the single greatest threat to peace and prosperity that the Americas confront today," said Progressive International.
US President Donald Trump and top administration officials, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, characterized Saturday's assault on Venezuela and abduction of the country's president as a warning shot in the direction of Cuba, Mexico, Colombia, and other Latin American nations.
During a Saturday press conference, Trump openly invoked the Monroe Doctrine—an assertion of US dominance of the Western Hemisphere—and said his campaign of aggression against Venezuela represented the "Donroe Doctrine" in action.
In his unwieldy remarks, Trump called out Colombian President Gustavo Petro by name, accusing him without evidence of "making cocaine and sending it to the United States."
"So he does have to watch his ass," the US president said of Petro, who condemned the Trump administration's Saturday attack on Venezuela as "aggression against the sovereignty of Venezuela and Latin America."
Petro responded defiantly to the possibility of the US targeting him, writing on social media that he is "not worried at all."
In a Fox News appearance earlier Saturday, Trump also took aim at the United States' southern neighbor, declaring ominously that "something's going to have to be done with Mexico," which also denounced the attack on Venezuela and abduction of President Nicolás Maduro.
"She is very frightened of the cartels," Trump said of Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum. "So we have to do something."
"This armed attack on Venezuela is not an isolated event. It is the next step in the United States' campaign of regime change that stretches from Caracas to Havana."
Rubio, for his part, focused on Cuba—a country whose government he has long sought to topple.
"If I lived in Havana and I was in the government, I'd be concerned, at least a little bit," Rubio, who was born in Miami to Cuban immigrant parents, said during Saturday's press conference.
That the Trump administration wasted no time threatening other nations as it pledged to control Venezuela indefinitely sparked grave warnings, with the leadership of Progressive International cautioning that "this armed attack on Venezuela is not an isolated event."
"It is the next step in the United States' campaign of regime change that stretches from Caracas to Havana—and an attack on the very principle of sovereign equality and the prospects for the Zone of Peace once established by the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States," the coalition said in a statement. "This renewed declaration of impunity from Washington is a threat to all nations around the world."
"Trump has clearly articulated the imperial logic of this intervention—to seize control over Venezuela's natural resources and reassert US domination over the hemisphere," said Progressive International. "The 'Trump corollary' to the Monroe Doctrine—applied in recent hours with violent force over the skies of Caracas—is the single greatest threat to peace and prosperity that the Americas confront today."