Trump's "Productive" Colombia Call Aims to Curb Cartels, Boost Peace

While speaking at the Press Briefing alongside White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, Vance said that talks are being held at all levels of the government with Carribean countries.

"Well, look, the President had a very productive phone call with the president of Colombia yesterday and we continued to talk at all levels of government with a number of our friends in the Caribbean region," he said.

Vance said that the talks were important to maintain peace.

"I actually think this is really good for peace in the Caribbean because when you take away a major source of illegal cartel revenue, which is the cocaine trade, the fentanyl trade, other sources of illicit revenue, you actually remove the power of one of the main destabilizing forces in Latin America and in the Caribbean," he said.

Vance said that the move is important to maintain peace in the hemisphere.

"I really do think, we say it all the time, this is the president of peace. One of the ways that you establish peace in your own hemisphere is to make it clear that the United States is going to be respected, that the United States is willing to take power away from criminal cartel organizations and give it to legitimate governments. That's how we see the future of the Western Hemisphere and we think it's going to be much more peaceful than it was certainly under Joe Biden," he said.

Earlier, US President Donald Trump and Colombian President Gustavo Petro held their first phone conversation following a recent war of words, at a time of growing strain between the United States and several Latin American countries. The exchange took place days after Trump accused the Colombian leader of being "sick" and involved in cocaine trafficking.

"It was a Great Honor to speak with the President of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, who called to explain the situation of drugs and other disagreements that we have had," Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social on Wednesday.

- ANI