US sanctions Colombia's president, accuses him of allowing expansion of drug trade

By Daphne Psaledakis, Julia Symmes Cobb and Brendan O'Boyle

WASHINGTON/BOGOTA/MEXICO CITY (Reuters) -The U.S. on Friday imposed sanctions on Colombian President Gustavo Petro, as President Donald Trump sharply escalated a feud with Washington's longtime Latin American ally over accusations that Petro has refused to stop the flow of cocaine into the United States.

Tensions between Washington and many countries in the region have been mounting for weeks. The U.S. military has ratcheted up activity in the southern Caribbean, striking vessels in international waters that it has alleged without evidence are carrying drugs. Trump this week called Petro an "illegal drug leader" after the leftist president accused the U.S. of committing "murder" with the strikes.

Petro, whose term will end in 10 months, has always opposed the strikes. He has attempted to end Colombia's six-decade conflict through peace and surrender deals with rebels and crime gangs, but those efforts have borne little fruit.

"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," U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement.

"President Petro has allowed drug cartels to flourish and refused to stop this activity. Today, 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."

Petro disputes the basis for the U.S. allegations, saying his government has seized cocaine at unprecedented rates and that expansion of coca crops - the base ingredient for cocaine - has slowed every year since 2021.

"What the U.S. Treasury says is a lie," Petro said on X on Friday afternoon. "My government did not increase cocaine, it did the opposite, my government has seized more cocaine than in the whole history of the world."

Petro, who first rose to prominence as a senator by exposing links between some of his fellow lawmakers and paramilitary groups involved in cocaine trafficking, earlier called the sanction "a complete paradox".

He said he had hired a U.S. lawyer to defend him and spoke to thousands of supporters in central Bogota on Friday evening, saying he has no money in the United States.

While rare, the imposition of sanctions on a head of state is not unprecedented. The move adds Petro to a short list that includes the leaders of Russia, Venezuela and North Korea.

Petro's wife and son as well as Armando Benedetti, Colombia's interior minister, were also hit with sanctions on Friday under the authority that allows Washington to target those it accuses of being involved in the global illicit drug trade.

On X, Benedetti said he had been penalized for merely stating that Petro was not a drug trafficker and that the sanctions proved the U.S. anti-drug fight was a "sham."

Former lawmaker Nicolas Petro, who is already facing corruption charges in Colombia, said on X he was targeted for being his father's son and that his pending case has nothing to do with drug trafficking.

Friday's action freezes any U.S. assets of those targeted and generally bars Americans from dealing with them.

"President Trump has been clear that President Petro better close up these killing fields immediately, or the United States will close them up for him, and it won't be done nicely," said White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly.

CLASHES SINCE TRUMP TOOK OFFICE

Trump and Petro have clashed several times since the Republican U.S. president took office in January, including in an escalating feud stemming from the U.S. strikes on vessels allegedly transporting drugs.

Last weekend, Trump threatened to raise tariffs on Colombia and said on Wednesday all funding to the country had been halted.

In a separate statement on Friday, the State Department said Secretary of State Marco Rubio will not certify Colombia's counter-narcotics efforts.

Last month, the United States revoked Petro's visa after he joined a pro-Palestinian demonstration in New York and urged U.S. soldiers to disobey Trump's orders.

Earlier in the year, Petro and Trump clashed over Colombia's refusal to accept military aircraft carrying deported migrants.

Petro also had differences with Trump's Democratic predecessor Joe Biden, sometimes criticizing the U.S. for not taking enough responsibility for dealing with Americans' demand for illegal narcotics.

But Petro and Biden sought ways to maintain drug enforcement cooperation and also shared common ground on issues such as climate change and migration.

Brett Bruen, who served as a foreign policy adviser under former President Barack Obama and is now head of the Global Situation Room consultancy, said Trump was creating more problems by imposing sanctions on Petro and conducting strikes against suspected drug traffickers off the coast of Colombia.

"These cowboy theatrics may play well to his base on social media, but they are creating very combustible conditions we will soon have to contend with on our doorstep," Bruen said.

In a meeting with the U.S. charge d'affaires in Colombia on Sunday night, Petro "reiterated the importance of the United States basing its assessments on accurate data regarding Colombia's fight against drugs," the Colombian foreign ministry said.

(Reporting by Daphne Psaledakis, Matt Spetalnick, Steve Holland and Doina Chiacu in Washington, Julia Symmes Cobb in Bogota and Brendan O'Boyle in Mexico City; Editing by Humeyra Pamuk, David Gregorio and Rosalba O'Brien)