WASHINGTON: Colombian President Gustavo Petro and US President Donald Trump held their first face-to-face talks at the White House on Tuesday, aiming to ease months of tensions over Venezuela and drugs.

Less than month after Trump threatened to topple leftist Petro in the same way he had Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro, the pair warmly shook hands in the West Wing colonnade, according to photos released by Bogota. But the visit was kept low-profile.

Petro’s car arrived by a side entrance, with none of the flags and fanfare typically accorded to heads of state visiting the White House, correspondents said. Trump and Petro’s meeting in the Oval Office was also being held behind closed doors for now, the White House said.

Pictures released by the Colombian presidency showed the two leaders talking in the Oval Office, accompanied by US Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

Drug lord Pipe Tulua extradited to US hours before meeting

Coming from opposite ends of the political spectrum, Petro and Trump long exchanged online insults, with the Colombian defending Maduro and criticising deadly US air strikes on alleged drug trafficking boats.

In the wake of the lightning US military raid on Caracas to topple Maduro, Trump warned Petro to “watch his ass” and said a Venezuela-style action against Colombia “sounds good to me.”

Deportation flights

But after an apparently warm phone call on Jan 7 the two agreed on Tuesday’s talks.

Petro said on X shortly before the meeting that during the talks he was “determined to continue strengthening the relationship between two nations that share a common goal: the fight against drug trafficking.”

In an apparent reference to the strikes on drug boats in the Caribbean and Pacific that have killed more than 100 people, he added that he wanted to do so “from an approach that prioritizes life and peace in our territories.”

Colombia also abruptly agreed to accept US deportation flights — reversing the very decision that triggered the falling-out between Trump and Petro last year.

“I mean, he’s been very nice over the last month or two,” Trump said. “He was certainly critical before that, but somehow, after the Venezuelan raid, he became very nice. I look forward to seeing him.”

Drug lord extradited

Colombian President Gustavo Petro extradited a drug lord to the United States early on Tuesday morning, hours before his meeting with President Donald Trump at the White House. Under pressure from Washington, the leftist leader resumed the extraditions of criminal leaders to the United States, which had been suspended for months amid stalled peace negotiations with armed groups in his country.

Petro “gave a very clear order over the weekend that the criminal alias Pipe Tulua be extradited from Colombia to the United States as quickly as possible,” Defence Minister Pedro Sanchez said. The criminal leader was wearing a helmet and bulletproof vest when he was put aboard an executive jet that took off from a military base at Bogota’s airport. Nearly 70 uniformed officers were deployed for his transfer, said police Colonel Elver Sanabria.

Published in Dawn, February 4th, 2026