WASHINGTON – The Trump administration 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 the United States' closest allies in South America.
The Ministry of Finance imposed fines on Petro; his wife Veronica del Socorro Alcocer Garcia; his son Nicholas Fernando Petro Burgos; and Colombian Interior Minister Armando Alberto Benedetti.
Petro “allowed drug cartels to flourish and refused to stop those activities,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement. “President Trump is taking decisive action to protect our nation and make clear that we will not tolerate drug trafficking into our country.”
The move escalates a growing clash between the Republican US president and Colombia's first leftist leader, particularly over deadly US strikes on suspected drug ships off the coast of South America.
This week, the Trump administration extended its crackdown to the Eastern Pacific, where much of the world's cocaine is smuggled from the world's largest producers, including Colombia. The U.S. military is sending an aircraft carrier to South American waters as part of an escalation of military firepower in the region, the Pentagon announced Friday.
Peter replies: “Never kneel”
After the announcement of the sanctions, Peter named a lawyer who, according to him, will represent his interests in the United States.
“Effectively fighting drug trafficking for decades brings me this measure from the government of the community we have so helped stop cocaine use,” Peter wrote on X. “A real paradox, but never take a step back and never take a knee.”
The punishments 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 the “leader of illegal drugs.”
“He's a guy who makes a lot of drugs,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Wednesday. “He better keep an eye on this or we will take very serious action against him and his country.”
Last month, the United States added Colombia, the region's largest recipient of American aid, to its list of countries not cooperating in the war on drugs for the first time in nearly 30 years.
After Trump accused him of drug trafficking ties, Petr said Wednesday he would turn to the U.S. court system to defend himself.
“Against the slander that high-ranking officials have brought against me on US soil, I will defend myself in court with American lawyers in US courts,” Peter wrote on X, without naming Trump but citing a news report about his comments.
A day earlier, Peter's anti-drug policy was the topic of a meeting between him and the US Chargé d'Affaires in Colombia, John T. McNamara. McNamara also met with Foreign Affairs Minister Rosa Yolanda Villavicencio Mapi on Thursday.
Colombian President defends his drug policy
Peter has repeatedly defended his policies, which move away from a repressive approach and prioritize reaching agreements with producers of coca leaves – the raw material for cocaine – to encourage them to switch to other crops, pursuing major drug lords and cracking down on money laundering. He said his government had achieved record levels of cocaine seizures and questioned UN data showing record coca leaf cultivation and cocaine production.
The amount of land devoted to coca cultivation has nearly tripled over the past decade, reaching a record 253,000 hectares (625,000 acres) in 2023, according to the latest report from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. This is about three times the size of New York.
The Trump administration has sent warships and planes to Latin America to target traffickers accused of smuggling drugs into the United States. Petro has fought back against strikes that have killed at least 43 people since they began last month, with the latest two strikes targeting shipping in the eastern Pacific Ocean, where Colombia has coastline.
This year, Peter has repeatedly feuded with Trump. Petro initially rejected U.S. military flights carrying deported migrants, prompting Trump to threaten tariffs. The State Department said it was revoking Petro's visa while he attended the U.N. General Assembly in New York because he ordered U.S. soldiers to disobey Trump's orders.
Lee reported from Jerusalem. Associated Press writers Regina Garcia Cano in Caracas, Venezuela, and Will Weissert in Washington contributed to this report.
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