Sweden to supply Gripen jets to Colombia; Petro orders bombing of narco-terrorist camp
Sunday, November 16th 2025 – 07:27 UTC
Colombian president Gustavo Petro confirmed the agreement reached with Sweden’s Saab aircraft manufacturer to buy 17 Gripen jets at a cost of US$ 4,3 billion
Colombia signed a US$ 4.3 billion deal to buy Swedish Gripen fighter jets at a time when the country, once a staunch ally of the US, is now ruled by a left leaning government locked in tension with President Donald Trump in his Caribbean battle against what he calls narco-terrorist regimes.
Colombian president Gustavo Petro confirmed the agreement reached with Sweden’s Saab aircraft manufacturer to buy 17 Gripen jets, confirming the size and cost of the military purchase initially announced in April, and following a rejection of US and French fighter aircraft offer.
“This is a deterrent weapon to achieve peace,” Petro said in a post on social media.
Swedish Defense Minister Pal Jonson said Colombia was joining Sweden, Brazil and Thailand in choosing the Gripen fighter jet, and defense relations between Bogota and Stockholm would “deepen significantly” as a result.
The purchase of warplanes comes as Colombia and neighboring Venezuela have been described as narco-terrorist regimes for allegedly supporting the drug trade into the US. President Trump alleging national security reasons has ordered a military build-up in the region with a deadly campaign of attacks on ‘drugs smugglers’ fast vessels in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific.
The Trump administration claims – but has provided no evidence – that it has targeted drug smugglers in its at least 20 confirmed attacks that have killed about 80 people so far in international waters.
US President Donald Trump has also accused both Petro and his Venezuelan counterpart, Nicolas Maduro, of being involved in the regional drug trade, a claim that both leaders have strenuously denied.
Petro said the new warplanes will be used to dissuade “aggression against Colombia, wherever it may come from”. He added that “in a world that is geopolitically messy,” such aggression “can come from anywhere”.
The Colombian president has for weeks traded insults with Donald Trump and said the ultimate goal of the US deployment in the region is to seize Venezuela’s oil wealth and destabilize Latin America.
Trump has long accused Venezuela’s Maduro of trafficking drugs and more recently branded Petro “an illegal drug leader” because of Colombia’s high level of cocaine production. Trump has also withdrawn US financial aid from Colombia and taken it off its list of countries seen as allies in fighting drug trafficking internationally.
Amid the war of words rumbling on between Washington and Bogota, Petro said last week that Colombia would suspend intelligence sharing with the US on combating drug trafficking, but officials in his government quickly rolled back that threat.
However despite the war of words Petro ordered this week an air strike on a camp of a dissident faction of the FARC rebel group, which engages in drug trafficking, according to Colombian military forces. . Allegedly some 19 rebels were killed and others captured in the camp long identified by the Colombian army.
Petro had in the past been reluctant to use air strikes to hit rebel camps but following the breakdown of peace talks with several of Colombia’s armed groups, he gave the green light for the military offensive.
Colombian Defense Minister Pedro Sánchez said that President Petro had authorized the air strike after learning of the imminent threat [the group] posed to the population and the security forces.
