Colombia’s President Refutes Rumors He Wrote Anti-Trump Rant While He Was Drunk

"Far-left President of Colombia Gustavo Petro on Monday refuted claims that he was in a state of inebriation when he published a late-night social media message that caused a short-lived diplomatic crisis with the United States on Sunday.
In an extensive rant, Petro accused President Donald Trump of racism for his plan to curtail illegal immigration, but not without asking him to share a glass of whisky to discuss the dangers of fossil fuels. Trump famously abstains from consuming alcohol.

“How much has our press degraded to believe that dignity is drunkenness? The cipayos [pejorative term used in South America to describe someone at the service of “foreign interests”] are the expression of a mental degradation, to let thought be colonized is worse than the physical colonization of a foreign power over the territory,” Petro wrote on Twitter.
Petro’s message is a direct response to Colombian journalist Luis Carlos Vélez, who resides in Miami. On Monday, Vélez publicly asked outgoing Foreign Minister Luis Murillo and his upcoming successor Laura Sarabia, “in the most respectful way,” where and under what conditions Petro was when he started feuding with the United States.
The Colombian president issued the comments after local journalists and politicians questioned Petro’s sobriety at the time he posted the roughly 3:41 a.m. (local time) tweet that sparked the diplomatic crisis with the United States.
Petro, a former member of the Marxist M19 terrorist guerrilla and Colombia’s first leftist president in the nation’s history, is known for single-handedly plunging Colombia into diplomatic problems with historically friendly nations such as Israel.
On Sunday, Petro caused a hours-long diplomatic crisis with the United States after he abruptly refused to accept a U.S. deportation flight of Colombians scheduled to arrive later that day. Petro justified his decision in a late-night post on the grounds that the United States treats “Colombian migrants as criminals.”
Minutes before refusing the arrival of the plane with deportees, Petro, in a now-deleted post, stated that the deportees were to be welcomed “with flags and flowers.” Petro deleted the post and, roughly 30 minutes later, published the message where he refused to allow the plane to land in Colombia.
President Donald Trump responded to Petro’s actions with a barrage of retaliatory measures, including a 25-percent tariff and visa sanctions on Colombian government officials. Petro replied in a long, incoherent Twitter rant.
Petro ultimately caved hours after his rant and “agreed to all” of President Trump’s terms. A Colombian delegation led by outgoing Foreign Minister Luis Murillo is set to travel to Washington, DC, at a later date to resolve the Petro-caused diplomatic crisis." Breitbart