Petro points to Ecuador as possible perpetrator of bombing in Colombia

Colombian President Gustavo Petro maintained that Ecuador could be behind a bombing on the Colombian side of the border between the two countries. Although he warned that his government must still investigate "well" what happened, he pointed out that the proximity to the border seems to ratify his suspicion "that they are bombing us from Ecuador and it is not the armed groups."

In the middle of a commercial dispute with his Ecuadorian counterpart Daniel Noboa, the leftist president assured during a televised meeting with his ministers that the bomb would have been "dropped from (an) aircraft." Petro said there had been "many explosions" and that there was a recording he believed "should be made public."

He added that he had asked Donald Trump to intervene: "I asked him to call the president of Ecuador because we do not want to go to war."

Colombia, at odds with Ecuador and estranged from the U.S.

Bogota and Quito have been in a trade war since February, when Noboa imposed tariffs on his neighbor after accusing it of not doing enough to combat drug trafficking in the border area. The Colombian president responded by imposing tariffs of his own. Despite various diplomatic efforts, the crisis persists.

President Daniel Noboa maintains a close relationship with Washington. In that context, on Sunday Ecuadorian forces began a two-week counter-narcotics offensive with U.S. support. The country is also a member of the so-called Shield of the Americas, an alliance of 17 nations of the continent recently created by the Trump Administration to confront security threats.

Trump and Petro crossed reproaches and threats on several occasions since the Republican's inauguration. However, their relationship appears to have improved following a meeting at the White House on February 3. Despite the apparent rapprochement, Colombia was not invited to the Shield. "I don't think we're seeing the level of cooperation that we really want to see yet from the Colombian government to invite them," explained White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt.