US imposes sanctions on Colombia’s president and family members over drug trade allegations
The Trump administration imposed sanctions Friday on Colombian President Gustavo Petro, his family and a member of his government over accusations of involvement in the global drug trade, sharply escalating tensions with the leftist leader of one of the closest U.S. allies in South America.
The Treasury Department leveled the penalties against Petro; his wife, Veronica del Socorro Alcocer Garcia; his son, Nicolas Fernando Petro Burgos; and Colombian Interior Minister Armando Alberto Benedetti.
Petro “has allowed drug cartels to flourish and refused to stop this activity,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement. “President Trump is taking strong action to protect our nation and make clear that we will not tolerate the trafficking of drugs into our nation.”
The move ramps up a growing clash between the Republican U.S. president and Colombia’s first leftist leader, notably over deadly American strikes on alleged drug-carrying boats off South America.
This week, the Trump administration expanded its crackdown to the eastern Pacific Ocean, where much of the cocaine from the world’s largest producers, including Colombia, is smuggled. And in an escalation of military firepower in the region, the U.S. military is sending an aircraft carrier to the waters off South America, the Pentagon announced Friday.
Petro responds ‘never on our knees’
After the sanctions were announced, Petro named an attorney he said will represent him in the U.S.
The government of Venezuela, also a target of the Trump administration’s military operations in the region, decried the sanctions against Petro, calling them “illegal, illegitimate, and neocolonial actions that violate international law and the Charter of the United Nations.”
The statement added that the U.S. measures seek to “promote the internal destabilization in Colombia” and praised Petro’s counter-narcotics strategy.
Many of the U.S. military strikes targeting traffickers accused of funneling drugs to the United States have hit boats the U.S. says have come from Venezuela or taken place in waters off the Venezuelan coast.
Petro has pushed back against the strikes, which have killed at least 43 people since they began early last month, and has repeatedly feuded with Trump this year.
Petro initially rejected U.S. military flights of deported migrants, leading Trump to threaten tariffs. The State Department said it would revoke Petro’s visa when he attended the U.N. General Assembly in New York because he told American soldiers to disobey Trump’s orders.
