The United States Treasury Department on Friday announced sanctions against Colombian President Gustavo Petro, accusing him of involvement in the global illicit drug trade.
The measures also target Petro’s wife, son, and Colombia’s interior minister.
“Since President Gustavo Petro came to power, cocaine production in Colombia has exploded to the highest rate in decades, flooding the United States and poisoning Americans,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement.
Petro, who has consistently dismissed such allegations, quickly fired back on X, saying he had hired an American lawyer to challenge the sanctions.
“Fighting drug trafficking for decades — and doing so effectively, has brought me this measure from the government of the very society we helped so much to curb its cocaine consumption,” Petro said. “Quite a paradox, but not one step back, and never on our knees.”
Relations between Petro’s administration and US President Donald Trump have deteriorated in recent months, particularly after Washington increased military operations in the southern Caribbean.
Petro has condemned US military actions targeting alleged drug-trafficking vessels, accusing Washington of being “murderers” and claiming that some of the targeted boats carried innocent Colombians.
According to CNN, at least one US strike in the past two months hit a boat carrying Colombian nationals, while another strike on a submersible left two survivors, including one Colombian.
Elizabeth Dickinson, senior analyst for Colombia at the International Crisis Group, described the move as “the personalization of a bilateral crisis.”
“On the day-to-day level and institutional level, there really isn’t a problem between the US and Colombia. Where the problem is this personal crisis, personal conflict,” she told CNN, adding that disagreements between Washington and Bogotá are not new.
“The Colombian military and security forces have worked hand-in-hand with the United States for close to four decades,” she said. “They are by far the most capable and willing partners that the US has in the region.”
Colombia has long been one of Washington’s most trusted allies in South America on security and defense issues. In 2022, the Biden administration designated the country as a “major non-NATO ally.”
The sanctions come just days after Trump announced he had suspended “all payments” to Colombia, accusing Petro of failing to curb drug production. The US State Department also revoked Petro’s visa following last month’s UN General Assembly session.
Colombian Interior Minister Armando Benedetti denounced the sanctions on X, saying he had “never entered the house of even a single drug trafficker.”
“For the US, a non-violent statement is the same as being a drug trafficker,” he added. “Gringos go home.”
Petro’s son, Nicolas, also condemned the sanctions, calling them “political and judicial persecution without precedent” and pledging to “turn to international organizations to defend my rights.”
According to the US Treasury Department, Nicolas Petro was arrested in Colombia in 2023 for “money laundering and illicit enrichment over allegations that he funneled money received from drug traffickers into Gustavo Petro’s ‘total peace’ efforts and election campaign.”
Nicolas, however, has maintained his innocence, saying the prosecutor clarified that the case “has nothing to do with drug trafficking or the presidential campaign.”
