Salem News Channel

U.S. Imposes Sanctions On Colombia’s President, Family Over Drug Trade

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. “Combating drug trafficking effectively for decades brings me this measure from the government of the society we helped so much to stop its use of cocaine,” Petro wrote on X. “Quite a paradox, but not one step back and never on our knees.” The penalties were expected after Trump recently said he would slash assistance to Colombia and impose tariffs on its exports, referring to Petro on social media in recent days as “an illegal drug leader.” “He’s a guy that is making a lot of drugs,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Wednesday. “He better watch it, or we'll take very serious action against him and his country.” The U.S. last month added Colombia, the top recipient of American assistance in the region, to a list of nations failing to cooperate in the drug war for the first time in almost 30 years. After Trump accused him of having ties to drug trafficking, Petro on Wednesday said he would resort to the U.S. court system to defend himself. “Against the calumnies that high-ranking officials have hurled at me on U.S. soil, I will defend myself judicially with American lawyers in the U.S. courts,” Petro wrote on X without naming Trump but citing 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. chargé d’affaires in Colombia, John T. McNamara. McNamara also met with Foreign Minister Rosa Yolanda Villavicencio Mapy on Thursday.

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