WASHINGTON/MEXICO CITY (Reuters) -The U.S. on Friday imposed sanctions on Colombian President Gustavo Petro, as President Donald Trump sharply escalated a feud with a longtime Latin American ally over accusations that Petro has refused to stop the flow of cocaine to the U.S.
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 called Petro an "illegal drug leader," after the leftist leader accused the U.S. of committing "murder" and said the U.S. had fired at a boat off Venezuela that belonged to a "humble family," not a rebel group.
"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,” 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.”
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.
In a post on X, Petro said: "Fighting drug trafficking for decades, and effectively, has brought me this measure from the government of the very society we helped so much to stop their cocaine consumption.
"A complete paradox — but not one step back, and never on our knees."
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 was sanctioned for merely stating that Petro was not a drug trafficker and said the sanctions proved the U.S. anti-drug fight was a "sham."
"This is the harshest sanction ever against a sitting Colombian president and his family," said Sergio Guzman of Colombia Risk Analysis.
"If this is the targeted sanctions the U.S. has been planning, then the pressure will be on Petro and his inner circle as opposed to the Colombian economy."
TARIFFS
Trump and Petro have clashed several times since the Republican U.S. president took office in January, including in an escalating feud stemming from U.S. military strikes on vessels allegedly transporting drugs in the region.
Last weekend, Trump threatened to raise tariffs on Colombia and said on Wednesday that 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.
Petro has pledged to tame coca-growing regions in the country with massive social and military intervention, but the strategy has brought little success.
The Colombia foreign ministry on Tuesday said Petro's government had seized more cocaine than previous administrations, adding that coca leaf crop expansion has slowed every year since 2021, from 43% in 2021 to 3% in 2024, according to figures from Colombia's defense ministry.
The ministry said in a statement that Petro, in a meeting with the U.S. charge d'affaires in Colombia, "reiterated the importance of the United States basing its assessments on accurate data regarding Colombia’s fight against drugs."
The ministry noted that the research commission contracted by the Colombian government to measure the potential production per hectare of coca leaf crops in the country made uncorrected errors.
(Reporting by Daphne Psaledakis and Doina Chiacu in Washington, Julia Symmes Cobb in Bogota and Brendan O'Boyle in Mexico City; Editing by Leslie Adler and David Gregorio)
