Colombian President Gustavo Petro on Thursday outlined his conversation with US President Donald Trump the day before, denying critics' claims that he “knelt” before the US leader.
Mr Trump said he “appreciated his call and tone” and that arrangements were being made for a potential meeting in Washington.
“Dialogue is where peace is found. Dialogue doesn't kneel, the lie does,” Mr Petro wrote in a post on X in response to critics saying he had called the US leader to convince him he was working to combat drug-trafficking in the country.
In another post, Mr Petro said the call had been enabled by Republican Senator Rand Paul, and that he had accepted the invitation to speak with Mr Trump “because I've always been convinced since I was young that it's always better to dialogue to stop the violence”.
He added that he had laid out his policy against drug trafficking and his views on what needs to happen next in Venezuela. US forces at the weekend captured Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro and brought him to the US to stand trial on drug and weapons-related charges.
“I know that President Trump doesn't agree with me, but it's more convenient to start a dialogue about it than to settle it on battlefields,” Mr Petro said, describing Mr Trump's response as “courteous”.
“Now we have to see the consequences of the re-establishment of the diplomatic conversation.”
Following the phone conversation, Mr Petro attended a rally in Bogota in which he read out Mr Trump's response on Truth Social.
The Colombian leader has frequently locked horns with Mr Trump over immigration as well as the regional drug trade, but relations have soured further following Mr Maduro's capture. The US has accused Mr Maduro of enriching himself through drug-trafficking, and Mr Trump has levied similar accusations at Mr Petro.
In November, Colombian media reported that a US presidential aide was seen in the White House holding a dossier with an artificial intelligence-generated photo of Mr Petro and Mr Maduro in orange prison jumpsuits. The file also appeared to contain a document called “The Trump Doctrine for Colombia and the Western Hemisphere”.
Meanwhile, the Senate on Thursday narrowly passed a bill directing the removal of the US military “from hostilities within or against Venezuela that have not been authorised by Congress”.
The passage of the bill by the Republican-majority Senate is a major victory for politicians who have been pushing the war powers issue on Venezuela. To become law, however, it still needs to pass the House of Representatives and override an expected presidential veto.
Mr Trump said Republicans who voted for the bill "should be ashamed". "This Vote greatly hampers American Self Defense and National Security, impeding the President’s Authority as Commander in Chief," he wrote in a post on Truth Social, calling the War Powers Act - which is aimed to check a president's power to commit US forces to an armed conflict without congressional approval - "unconstitutional".
Senator Tim Kaine, co-sponsor of the bipartisan bill, has been outspoken in his rejection of the Trump administration's actions against Venezuela.
He called the strike that resulted in the capture of Mr Maduro an “unauthorised military attack”.
“Where will this go next? Will the President deploy our troops to protect Iranian protesters? To enforce the fragile ceasefire in Gaza? To battle terrorists in Nigeria? To seize Greenland or the Panama Canal? To suppress Americans peacefully assembling to protest his policies?” he said in a statement. “Trump has threatened to do all this and more and sees no need to seek legal authorisation from people’s elected legislature before putting service members at risk.”
Venezuela’s government has said it will soon free an “important number” of local and foreign prisoners.
National Assembly leader Jorge Rodriguez said the releases are a peace gesture. The move could signal a willingness of interim President Delcy Rodriguez to go along with US demands that she act as a reliable negotiating partner.
