WASHINGTON 

The White House sharply rebuffed Colombian President Gustavo Petro on Thursday amid a row with Bogota over the Trump administration's strikes on boats in the region that it claims are engaged in narcotrafficking. 

"I don't think we're seeing de-escalation from the unhinged leader of Colombia right now. And I don't think the president, frankly, is interested in that at this point," spokesperson Karoline Leavitt told reporters.

Colombia urged the US on Thursday to cease attacks on vessels in the Pacific Ocean and respect international legal norms following several deadly strikes on boats Washington said were linked to drug trafficking.

The Foreign Ministry urged the US to engage through diplomatic channels to clarify situations and adopt strategies to jointly continue combating drugs in the region.

The statement came after US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced Wednesday that American forces carried out a strike on a vessel allegedly engaged in narco-trafficking in the Eastern Pacific.

US intelligence indicated that the vessel was transiting along a "known narco-trafficking route" and was carrying narcotics, he said.

The attack marks the latest US strike on suspected drug-trafficking boats as part of the Trump administration's campaign against “narco-terrorism.”

US President Donald Trump has threatened to take “very serious action” against Colombia, which he accused of manufacturing illegal drugs that are brought into the US.

Leavitt said the Trump administration will not "tolerate international narcoterrorist organizations from trafficking drugs into the United States, and these cartels, over time, have grown more armed, well organized and violent."

"They have illegally caused the deaths of tens of thousands of American citizens each year. So that's where we are right now, with respect to Venezuela, but also any country that is sending purposefully illegal narcoterrorists to the United States of America to bring illegal drugs," she added.

Speaking to reporters at the White House, Trump claimed that "cartels are running countries."

He accused Colombia of being "a drug den, and it has been for a long time," and said the country produces "cocaine at levels that we've never seen before, and they sell it back."

Threatening to take action, he said the US is "not going to put up with it much longer. Colombia is very bad."

Trump further expressed "great respect" for Mexico's President Claudia Sheinbaum and called her a "very brave woman" but argued that "Mexico is run by the cartels, and we have to defend ourselves from that."

*Merve Aydogan contributed to this story