While the situation in Venezuela's neighbor to the west, Colombia is tense tonight.

Though it's a major non-NATO ally of the U.S., President Trump has threatened its president, Gustavo Petro, repeatedly,

alleging without evidence he has ties to the drug trade.

And millions of Venezuelans fled to Colombia during Maduro's rule and are following this weekend's events closely.

Joining us now from Bogota is special correspondent Monica Villamizar.

Thank you for being with us.

So we know that Colombia is responding forcefully after President Trump suggested its president,

and his words could be next following the U.S. military operation in Venezuela.

How are Colombian leaders and the public there

interpreting and responding to President Trump's statement?

President Petro, there is absolutely no proof. He has no indictment for drug trafficking.

He sits at the polar opposite of President Trump. He was a left-wing guerrilla fighter,

but he demobilized with M-19, a guerrilla group

in the 90s. And I say this because today he said he's left arms back in the 90s, but he is

willing to pick them up again and ready to defend his country if it is attacked. So very strong words

from the president and the government. They have been very critical about what happened in Venezuela as well. And, you know, like other Latin American leaders, they stand by the claims that, you know, this is against international law and the country's sovereignty. As for the Colombian people, likewise, many people here are thinking this is a colonial attitude. You know, the United States has, Latin America has been sort of the backyard for the United States and people are not happy with such blatant interference, like removing a president, even though he was not a popular one in the case of Venezuela. But also, very right-wing Colombians are growing, I must say, increasingly

worried about Petro, and they say he has tendencies that are showing that he is increasingly

populist and may perhaps want to remain in power. There's upcoming elections, May 31st,

so there's a lot going on here in Colombia as well.

Well, give us some background on the Trump-Petro relationship. Where did this tension begin?

Absolutely. Like I said, they sit at polar opposites, right? Petro is a very left-wing

leaning president. They started having frictions back when the mass deportations

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