Gustavo Petro, the president of Colombia, his family, and Armando Benedetti, the interior minister of the South American nation, have been subject to sanctions by the US Department of the Treasury.
The left-leaning Petro and his US counterpart, the right-wing Donald Trump, are currently at odds with one another. Friday’s decision is significant.
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The US Treasury accused Petro of preventing accountability and keeping criminal organizations out of Colombia’s cocaine industry in a statement.
The Treasury cited Petro’s “Total Peace” initiative, which aims to end Colombia’s six-decade-old internal conflict through negotiations with armed rebels and criminal organizations.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent stated in a statement that “coca production in Colombia has exploded at the highest rate in decades, flooding the United States and poisoning Americans.”
President Petro has allowed the growth of drug cartels, but he has refused to stop it.
Petro, a prolific social media user, quickly refrained from claiming that Bernie Moreno, a Republican critic of his presidency, was one of the Republican Senators who have long been the target of Republican threats.
On the social media platform X, Petro wrote, “Bernie Moreno’s threat has indeed been fulfilled.” I’ve been added to the OFAC list along with my wife and my children, according to the statement.
He claimed that his nation had been “effectively combating drug trafficking for decades” and that he would file a lawsuit against the US court system.
Petro vowed to never be on my knees and never step back in the fight.
Petro joins a select group of world leaders who have been approved by the US with Friday’s designation.
Following his country’s massive invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and Russian President Vladimir Putin both faced sanctions for human rights violations.
Petro is currently in the twilight of his presidency, which is why the left-wing leader and former rebel is facing sanctions. He will retire in 2026 and be term-limited.
Petro is regarded as Colombia’s first left-wing leader in the country’s history.
Additionally, it is the most recent legal action the Trump administration has taken against one of its most renowned Latino critics.
A confrontational history
Petro and Trump got into a fight shortly after Petro won a second term in the United States on January 20.
Trump quickly followed through on a campaign promise: to deport large numbers of undocumented US citizens.
The world’s media was flooded with images of shackled immigrants being boarded US military aircraft. Petro was one of the users who took to social media to vent their outrage.
He threatened to reject two deportation flights coming out of the US in the early hours of January 26. He wrote on social media that “the US cannot treat Colombian migrants as criminals.”
Petro reacted by backing down and threatening the nation with 30% tariffs.
However, the two continue to argue over topics like Colombia’s need to cut back on its illicit cocaine production, from immigration to human rights to how to handle it.
The South American nation still has the most coca, a leaf that can be transformed into cocaine, in the world. Colombia’s production increased by 53% over the previous year, according to a report from the UN last year. Petro’s government is now in its 10th year.
Trump, however, has increasingly leaned on his powerful foreign policy, particularly in Latin America, to combat drug trafficking.
He has used the threat of higher tariffs on US imports to pressure other nations, including those that are close to Mexico and Canada, to stop drug trafficking, as an example.
Conflicts caused by military strikes
Trump has launched a number of missile strikes on nautical vessels in the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean since September 2 to follow his threats with military action.
According to Trump, drug traffickers were the ones who were targeted. Petro has argued, however, that the strikes constitute extrajudicial killings.
He has used his social media platform to draw attention to cases like Alejandro Carranza’s alleged death in one of the strikes. The identities of at least 34 people who were killed by the bombings were never officially revealed.
In a social media post posted on Friday, shortly before the sanctions were made, Petro wrote, “These are not war casualties.” They are murders, they say.
Petro criticized the Trump administration’s actions at the United Nations in New York in September, taking that message to the stage.
Petro told the international body, “The violent war on drugs was a failure, and I replaced it with an effective anti-trafficking policy.”
Was it actually necessary to target poor, unarmed Caribbean youth with missiles? The anti-drug policy aims to stop the flow of American cocaine. The goal of the anti-drug policy is to rule the entire south’s population.
Afterward, Petro was seen protesting against Israel’s occupation of Gaza on the streets of New York City with pro-Palestinian demonstrators.
Petro’s visa was voided within hours by the Trump administration, which has compared protests to “terrorism” for the president.
Colombia was also decertified as a partner in the US’s ongoing “war on drugs” that same month by the administration.
Putting an end to Colombia’s assistance
Since then, Trump and Petro’s tense relationship has only gotten worse.
Trump made the announcement on his platform Truth Social just this week that he would stop providing aid to Colombia, the country’s largest recipient of US funding in South America.
If Petro doesn’t take more steps to stop the cocaine trade, he also warned that the US might become more active in the area.
“Petro, a low-rated and very unpopular leader with a fresh mouth toward America, better close these killing fields immediately, or the United States will close them up for him, and it won’t be done nicely,” Trump wrote.
Trump threatened to repeat it a few days later, on October 22 during a meeting with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte.
Trump criticized Petro, saying, “He’d better watch it, or we’ll take very serious action against him and his country.” He has “made his country a deathtrap” for himself.
Petro retaliated by threatening to sue Trump for slander. Petro has been called a “drug dealer,” “thug,” and “bad guy,” among other things by the US leader.
The conflict between the two presidents has damaged diplomatic ties between their countries, with Colombia recently removing its ambassador from Washington, DC.
Source: Aljazeera
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