Uribe, Santos and the business elite: How Colombian leaders came together against Trump’s threats

That day the phones did not stop ringing. There were international calls from Bogotá to Washington and from Washington to Bogotá. The Colombian elite, fragmented and in a continuous struggle over spaces of power, came together on Sunday around an idea: to save the country. Donald Trump’s order to start a trade war against Colombia, in response to Gustavo Petro’s decision not to allow two planes loaded with handcuffed deportees with their heads between their legs to land, brought together people who do not like each other, who distrust each other and who do not hesitate to call each other enemies. Foreign Minister Luis Gilberto Murillo, distanced from Petro on issues such as Venezuela, led the bulk of the conversations with the White House. But both former presidents Álvaro Uribe and Juan Manuel Santos communicated with old acquaintances so that sanctions would not be imposed. “It was a kind of national unity,” explains someone close to Petro who witnessed first-hand what happened.

Not only former presidents were involved. “Practically everyone who has anything to do with the United States,” the same source continues. Former foreign minister María Ángela Holguín, former vice president Marta Lucía Ramírez and former minister María Claudia Lacouture were involved. Also business leaders and major financiers. Those close to Trump, who know him well after having attended international conferences, lent a hand and warned of the steps he was preparing to take. Despite all the internal disputes, they felt the need to protect the country. Many were upset by Petro’s attitude, which they considered provocative and unnecessary, but that was relegated to the background. It was time to unite under a single idea of the nation. The government, far from viewing it as an intrusion, was grateful for the efforts. “In the midst of the tension and nerves, it was an exciting day from which many lessons can be learned,” said a source at Casa de Nariño, the presidential residence.

Foreign Minister Murillo has a direct line to Marco Rubio, the U.S. Secretary of State, and Mauricio Claver-Carone, the White House special envoy for Latin America. These are two very hard-line hawks who very early on showed their distrust of Petro. Murillo, even when Petro continued to attack Trump on the social platform X, remained calm, sure that he would be able to fix the matter in a few hours. To reinforce the diplomatic offensive, Laura Sarabia spoke with Uribe, a former conservative president of Colombia who has good contacts among U.S. Republicans. Several media outlets published that she asked him to speak with Rubio, but that never happened, according to presidential sources.

Uribismo, the ideological movement that has taken shape around the former president, has a privileged relationship with Trumpism, and it even backed Trump’s failed re-election in the crucial state of Florida, where Rubio is from. In his first term, Trump found harmony with then-president Iván Duque (2018-2022), who preceded Petro and was once a disciple of Uribe. That administration was the first to support Claver-Carone’s controversial candidacy when Trump nominated him to lead the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), traditionally destined for a Latin American. Claver-Carone was a key interlocutor in this situation. The ambassador in Washington, Daniel García-Peña, established contact with him to resolve the crisis.

Marta Lucía Ramírez was Duque’s vice president and also his foreign minister: “This was resolved directly with Claver-Carone. He told Foreign Minister Murillo that the United States’ conditions were non-negotiable.” She called together former high-level officials to see what they could contribute, and believes that a working group should emerge from these contacts that will be attentive to the government’s foreign policy decisions regarding Washington. “We must keep a voice in the ears of the public and private power establishments in the United States until the Petro administration ends. Unfortunately, it is not unlikely that the president might once again commit another monumental suicidal operation,” says the former vice president.

“We were on the verge of jumping into the void, it was like suicide from an economic point of view,” warns the president of the National Association of Businessmen of Colombia, ANDI, Bruce Mac Master, about that dizzying Sunday, underscoring the reaction of the government’s diplomatic team. ANDI formally requested the presidency to activate all diplomatic channels and suspend the “polarized and very immature fights on social networks,” to consider the true dimension of what was happening. The business leaders warned of Colombia’s enormous vulnerabilities, which go beyond the commercial or export issues and have to do with inflation, unemployment, financing, capital markets, the exchange rate or remittances, among many other things. “At the same time, we also activated the conversation with the U.S. government so that they would open the door to a conversation with the Colombian Government,” says the union leader.

At the same time, the government was analyzing the implications of the 25% tariffs, visa restrictions and other threats from Trump. The outlook was “devastating” for Colombia, say sources familiar with these talks. Fortunately, the diplomatic team understood the dimension of the problem well, says Mac Master. “An important part of their work involved making the president realize the huge mistake we were making, and the potential consequences of his attitude,” he says. The work from different sides were already well underway when Sarabia, the designated foreign minister, wrote a message calling for calm, at about six in the evening. There was total agreement on the need to resolve the crisis as soon as possible, before Monday when the exchange markets open and the threats from the two presidents would materialize. “Everyone came together to defend the relationship. This should tell the national government a lot about the importance of ties between Colombia and the United States, not for a few players, but for everyone,” said a source who was at the forefront of negotiations in both capitals.

“Diplomacy is the only way to maintain a good relationship between the two countries,” concludes the president of the Colombian-American Chamber (AmCham), María Claudia Lacouture, who was also Minister of Commerce in the Government of Juan Manuel Santos. “There may be agreements, coincidences and also differences, but the important thing is that they should be processed through diplomatic channels. Tensions will continue, and the risk of a crisis is still latent,” she warns. On the horizon, future turbulence looms, such as a possible decertification in the fight against narcotics – something that has not occurred since the government of Ernesto Samper (1994-1998) – or a review of the trade agreement between Colombia and the United States. “We cannot improvise. The relationship requires a clear, defined roadmap,” emphasizes Lacouture, insisting on prioritizing dialogue, common sense and diplomacy: “There is no room for divisions, much less political opportunism.”

Bridges were also built with former president Juan Manuel Santos, although his team did not wish to specify to this newspaper what his specific role was. Foreign Minister Murillo was minister of the environment under Santos, and he often insists that he has great appreciation for him despite the harsh criticism he has recently launched at him for his handling of relations with neighboring Venezuela. The consultations of the team entrusted by Petro also included another prominent minister in Santos’ cabinet, María Ángela Holguín. She is the person who has occupied the San Carlos Palace, the headquarters of the Foreign Ministry, for the longest time, since she was the head of Colombian diplomacy during the former president’s two terms, a total of eight years. It was precisely during that period of time that many countries stopped requiring visas for Colombians, a particularly sensitive issue in the country, although the requirement was maintained by the United States. Now it was time to work together on a problem that required an immediate solution. For once, politicians and business leaders have united and succeeded in convincing the United States that it was unnecessary to open a trade war. This victory does not have a single owner.

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