LatinNews Daily - 03 November 2025

Colombia: On 24 October the US Office of Foreign Assets Control (Ofac) designated Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro alongside his wife, son, and Interior Minister Armando Benedetti. The sanctions mark the first time a sitting Colombian president has been designated by Ofac and follow Washington’s decision in September to decertify Colombia as an ally in the war on drugs and to revoke Petro’s visa. The US Treasury justified the move by alleging that President Petro has emboldened “narco-terrorist organizations” through his policy of pursuing “total peace” with Colombia’s various armed non-state groups. In an official press release, US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent said cocaine production “has exploded to the highest rate in decades” under Petro, who he claimed has “allowed drug cartels to flourish and refused to stop this activity”. The Treasury also accused Petro of allying himself with the “narco-terrorist” regime of Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro, who has also been sanctioned by Ofac. Responding in a post on X, Petro called the accusations “a lie”, asserting that his government “has seized more cocaine than at any other time in history”. He described the Treasury’s actions as “arbitrary” and “typical of an oppressive regime”. The sanctions – which freeze any US-based assets and prohibit financial transactions between US entities and Ofac-designated persons – mark a new low in bilateral relations, arriving a week after President Trump referred to Petro as an “illegal drug leader” and threatened to halt all aid to the nation once considered the US’ closest partner in the war on drugs.

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