United States Imposes Sanctions on Colombian President and Family Members Over Drug Trafficking Allegations

(Patria) - The administration of U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday imposed sanctions on Colombian President Gustavo Petro, his family, and a member of his government over allegations of involvement in the global drug trade, sharply escalating tensions with the leftist leader of one of America's closest allies in South America, the AP reported.

The Treasury Department issued penalties against Petro, his wife Verónica del Socorro Alcocer García, his son Nicolás Fernando Petro Burgos, and Colombia's Interior Minister Armando Alberto Benedetti.
Petro "has allowed drug cartels to flourish and has refused to stop that activity," Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement. "President Trump is taking strong action to protect our nation and making it clear that we will not tolerate drug trafficking into our country."

The move intensifies a growing conflict between the Republican U.S. president and Colombia's first leftist leader, particularly over deadly U.S. strikes on vessels allegedly carrying drugs off the coast of South America.

This week, the Trump administration expanded its measures to the eastern Pacific Ocean, where much of the cocaine from the world's largest producers, including Colombia, is smuggled.

In an escalation of military firepower in the region, the U.S. military is sending an aircraft carrier to South American waters, the Pentagon announced on Friday. The United States last month added Colombia, the largest recipient of U.S. aid in the region, to a list of countries not cooperating in the war on drugs for the first time in nearly three decades. The penalties were expected after Trump recently said he would cut aid to Colombia and impose tariffs on its exports, calling Petro on social media in recent days an "illegal drug leader."

"He's the guy who produces a lot of drugs," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Wednesday. "He better watch out, or we will take very serious action against him and his country."

After Trump accused him of ties to drug trafficking, Petro on Wednesday said he would turn to the U.S. judicial system to defend himself.

"Against the slanders that high officials have made against me on U.S. soil, I will defend myself in court with American lawyers in American courts," Petro wrote on social media platform X, without naming Trump but referring to a news report about his comments.

A day earlier, Petro's anti-drug policy was the subject of a meeting between him and the U.S. Embassy's chargé d'affaires in Colombia, John T. McNamara. McNamara also met on Thursday with Foreign Minister Rosa Yolanda Villavicencio Mapy.

Petro has repeatedly defended his policy, which moves away from a repressive approach and prioritizes reaching agreements with coca leaf growers - the raw material for cocaine - to encourage them to switch to other crops, while pursuing major drug lords and combating money laundering. He said his government has achieved record cocaine seizures and questioned United Nations data showing record coca leaf cultivation and cocaine production.

The amount of land dedicated to coca cultivation, the basic ingredient of cocaine, has nearly tripled in the last decade to a record 253,000 hectares in 2023, according to the latest available report from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. That is roughly three times the area of New York City.

The Trump administration has sent military ships and aircraft to Latin America to target drug traffickers accused of funneling drugs into the United States. Petro has opposed the strikes, in which at least 37 people have been killed since the beginning of last month, with the latest two targeting vessels in the eastern Pacific, where Colombia has a coastline.

Petro has clashed with Trump multiple times this year. Petro initially refused U.S. military flights deporting migrants, prompting Trump to threaten tariffs. The State Department said it would revoke Petro's visa when he attended the UN General Assembly in New York because he told U.S. soldiers not to follow Trump's orders.