Report: Trump privately met with former Colombian presidents in Florida

President Trump privately met with two former Colombian presidents last week at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Fla., the Miami Herald reported on Thursday.

According to the publication, the meeting between Trump and the former presidents, Álvaro Uribe and Andrés Pastrana, was not on the president’s schedule or disclosed to reporters who were with him in Palm Beach.

{mosads}Colombian news media reported that the meeting was arranged by Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), who had been critical of former President Obama’s commitment to send a $450 million foreign aid package to solidify the peace agreement between the government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, a longtime guerrilla group. 

Uribe was a leader of the campaign against the peace deal, which was ultimately enacted by legislation after a majority voted no in a referendum. 

The White House initially declined to answer questions about the meeting but later confirmed that Trump did meet with two former leaders, according to the report.

“They were there with a member from the club and briefly said hello when the president walked past them,” spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said. “There wasn’t anything beyond a quick hello.”

Following the meeting, however, Pastrana took to Twitter to thank the U.S. president for the “cordial and very frank conversation” about issues in Colombia and the region.

Uribe’s former vice president, Francisco Santos, described the meeting as short but with a clear message, according to the Miami Herald. 

Trump is set to meet next month with current President Juan Manuel Santos, who is expected to seek Trump’s support for the peace deal.