U.S. President Donald Trump has threatened military action against Colombia’s government, telling reporters that “such an operation sounds good to me,” 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.

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

When asked whether the U.S. would pursue a military operation against the country, Mr Trump said, “It sounds good to me.”

Meanwhile, Colombia had rejected Mr Trump’s comments as “an unacceptable threat against an elected leader.”

The Colombian Foreign Ministry said in a statement that “It represents undue interference in the internal affairs of the country, against the norms of international law.’’

(Reuters/NAN)