Trump sanctions Colombian president as relations deteriorate

President Trump has sanctioned Colombia’s president, two members of his family and members of his inner circle for alleged drug trafficking as relations between the two countries sour.

The Treasury Department on Friday announced the sanctions, which target President Gustavo Petro, his wife, one of his sons and his former campaign chief, Armando Benedetti and his interior minister. The family members and officials were added to a “specially designated nationals list,” which blocks them from doing business in the U.S. and with American companies.

Mr. Trump has repeatedly called the Colombian president an “Illegal drug dealer,” accusing him of allowing narcotics trafficking to thrive in his country. He accused Mr. Petro of turning Colombia into “a drug den” and called the country’s leader “a thug,” saying Colombia makes “cocaine at levels we’ve never seen before.”

“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,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement. “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.”

Mr. Petro has denied the allegations and dismissed them as insulting. After the sanctions were announced, he said he had hired an attorney to represent him in the U.S.

“Combating drug trafficking effectively for decades brings me this measure from the government of the society we helped so much to stop its use of cocaine,” Mr. Petro wrote on X. “Quite a paradox but not one step back and never on our knees.”

Mr. Benedetti on X also denied being a drug dealer and called the sanctions unjust.

Friday’s announcement comes after Mr. Trump last month decertified Colombia as a partner in fighting the war on drugs, relegating the longtime U.S. ally to the same category as Venezuela, Bolivia, Myanmar and Afghanistan. Mr. Petro also had his U.S. visa canceled.

Colombia was once a close U.S. ally in the region. The two countries partnered on a 15-year endeavor dubbed Plan Colombia, in which the U.S. sent $14 billion to the country to curb drug trafficking and guerrilla violence.

It also follows the U.S. military’s strikes in the region against ships the U.S. has accused without evidence of trying to bring drugs into America. Mr. Petro has accused the U.S. of murder in those strikes, saying the attacks killed a lifelong fisherman who had no business in the drug trade.

Colombia is currently the epicenter of a global cocaine boom, producing six times as much as it did when infamous drug lord Pablo Escobar was murdered in 1993. The country’s cultivation of coca bushes, the material used in making the drug, rose to 253,000 hectares last year, which is enough to produce 2,600 tons of cocaine, according to data from Bloomberg. That’s more than the output of Peru and Bolivia combined.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Thursday that Mr. Trump is fed up with Mr. Petro and expects the feud to continue.

“I don’t think we’re seeing de-escalation from the unhinged leader of Colombia right now and I don’t think the president, frankly, is interested in that at this point,” she said.