The United States administration on Friday, October 24, imposed sanctions on Colombian President Gustavo Petro, his family and a member of his government over allegations of their involvement in drug trade, further rupturing of relations between the two countries and triggering a sharp response from Colombia President.
The US imposed sanctions on Gustavo Petro and his family, accusing him of refusing to stop the flow of cocaine to the US.
After the Trump administration imposed sanctions on Colombia’s president and his family, he hit back at the US, remarking that the sanctions came from a society his country had helped curb cocaine consumption in.
Colombia President Gustavo Petro, in his defiant response to the sanctions, said, “Fighting drug trafficking for decades and effectively has brought me this measure from the government of the society we helped so much to curb their cocaine consumption.”
He also said that sanctions were “not a step back.”
“A complete paradox, but not a step back and never on our knees,” Gustavo Petro posted on social media.
Earlier in the day, he had also accused Donald Trump of “carrying out extrajudicial executions” that “violate” international law after nine US strikes on alleged drug-smuggling boats.
“Mr Trump has slandered me and insulted Colombia. The deaths keep increasing like a taxi meter,” AFP quoted Petro as saying. Also Read | US delivers deadly warning after striking another drug-carrying boat in Caribbean – ‘We’ll track, hunt, kill you’
Why US sanctioned Colombia Prez?
The sanctions have been slapped on Gustavo Petro; his wife Veronica del Socorro Alcocer Garcia; his son, Nicolas Fernando Petro Burgos; and Colombian Interior Minister Armando Alberto Benedetti.
Announcing sanctions, Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent said, “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.”
“Petro has allowed drug cartels to flourish and refused to stop this activity. 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,” Bessent said.
The move ramps up a growing clash between Donald Trump and Gustavo Petro, notably over deadly American strikes on alleged drug-carrying boats off South America. Last weekend, Trump had threatened to raise tariffs on Colombia and said on Wednesday that all funding to the country had been halted.
Justifying the sanctions, the US said hat “cocaine from Colombia is often purchased by Mexican cartels, who then smuggle it into the United States via the southern border.”
In a recent clash with Petro, Donald Trump had called him an “illegal drug leader.”
Trump said, “He’s a guy that is making a lot of drugs. He better watch it, or we’ll take very serious action against him and his country.”
Gustavo Petro responded by saying that he would resort to the US court system to defend himself. “Against the calumnies that high-ranking officials have hurled at me on US soil, I will defend myself judicially with American lawyers in the US courts,” Petro wrote on X.