Trump threatens military operation against Colombia, after Venezuela raid

ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE, Jan 5 (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump on Sunday threatened military action against Colombia’s government, telling reporters that such an operation “sounds good to me” and prompting an angry response from Bogota.

The comments came after the United States captured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in a raid early on Saturday and whisked him to New York to face drug-trafficking charges.

“Colombia is very sick, too, run by a sick man, who likes making cocaine and selling it to the United States, and he’s not going to be doing it very long,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One, in an apparent reference to Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro.

Asked directly whether the U.S. would pursue a military operation against the country, Trump said: “It sounds good to me.”

Colombia rejected Trump’s comments as an unacceptable threat against an elected leader.

“It represents an undue interference in the internal affairs of the country, against the norms of international law,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement late on Sunday.

(Reporting by Gram Slattery and Trevor Hunnicutt; Editing by Tom Hogue, Christian Schmollinger and Gareth Jones)