The United States is intensifying its anti-narcotics campaign in Latin America, combining efforts against drug trafficking with political pressure on governments that, in Washington’s view, fail to confront the cartels. After Venezuela—where the Trump administration accuses Nicolás Maduro’s regime of involvement in transnational cocaine shipments—the next target has become Colombia, one of America’s key allies in the region.
On Friday, October 24, the White House announced sanctions against President Gustavo Petro, members of his family, and the interior minister, saying that Colombia’s authorities had allowed the growing influence of drug cartels and refused to cooperate in curbing their activities.
The administration of Donald Trump imposed sanctions on Colombian President Gustavo Petro, members of his family, and one of his ministers, accusing them of involvement in international drug trafficking. The move sharply escalated tensions with the leftist leader of one of the United States’ closest allies in South America.
The U.S. Treasury Department extended the sanctions to Petro himself, his wife Verónica del Socorro Alcocer García, his son Nicolás Fernando Petro Burgos, and Interior Minister Armando Alberto Benedetti.
“Petro has allowed the cartels to flourish and refuses to stop their operations,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said. According to him, “President Trump is taking decisive action to protect our country and make it clear that we will not tolerate drug smuggling onto our soil.”
The move marks a new stage in the confrontation between the Republican U.S. president and Colombia’s first-ever left-wing head of state—fueled in part by American strikes on suspected drug-running boats off the coast of South America.
This week, the Trump administration expanded its operational zone to the eastern Pacific, through which a significant portion of cocaine shipments from major producing countries—including Colombia—are routed. On the same day, the Pentagon announced it was deploying an aircraft carrier to the waters off South America, reinforcing the U.S. military presence in the region.
Last month, Washington—for the first time in nearly thirty years—placed Colombia, the largest recipient of U.S. aid in the region, on its list of countries “not cooperating” in the fight against drugs.
The sanctions came as little surprise after Trump vowed to cut aid to Colombia and impose tariffs on its exports, calling Petro an “illegitimate drug lord” on social media.
“He’s a man who makes a lot of drugs,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Wednesday. “He should be more careful, or we’ll take very serious action against him and his country.”
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Following the accusations of ties to drug trafficking, Petro said he intends to defend himself in U.S. courts. “Against the slander spread about me by senior officials on American soil, I will defend myself legally—with the help of American lawyers in U.S. courts,” he wrote on X, without naming Trump but referencing a news report about his remarks.
The day before, Petro had discussed his anti-narcotics strategy with U.S. chargé d’affaires in Colombia John T. McNamara, and the following day the American diplomat met with Foreign Minister Rosa Yolanda Villavicencio Mapi.
Petro has repeatedly defended his policy, which departs from a purely punitive approach. It calls for dialogue with farmers who grow coca—the raw material for cocaine—with the goal of transitioning to alternative crops, while focusing enforcement on major drug lords and money laundering networks. He claims his government has achieved record levels of cocaine seizures and questions UN data showing that coca cultivation and cocaine production have reached historic highs.
According to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, the area of land used for coca cultivation has nearly tripled over the past decade, reaching a record 253,000 hectares in 2023—roughly three times the size of New York City.
The Trump administration has deployed warships and aircraft to Latin America to target smugglers accused of trafficking drugs into the United States. Petro sharply condemned these operations, which authorities say have killed at least 37 people since they began last month; the most recent strikes targeted vessels in the eastern Pacific, where Colombia has a stretch of coastline.
This year has seen repeated clashes between Petro and Trump. Petro initially refused to accept flights carrying deported migrants, prompting Trump to threaten tariffs. The U.S. State Department later announced it would revoke Petro’s visa during his visit to the UN General Assembly in New York, after he urged American soldiers not to follow Trump’s orders.