The USA imposed sanctions on the president today, October 24 ColombiaGustavo Petros, accusing him of refusing to stop the flow of cocaine to the United States.
“Since President Gustavo Petro took office, cocaine production in Colombia has soared to the highest rate in decades, flooding the US and poisoning Americans,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent claimed.
“President Petro allowed drug cartels to flourish and refused to stop this activity. Today, President Trump is taking strong action to protect our nation and make it clear that we will not tolerate drug trafficking in our country,” he added.
Petros, in his post on the X platform, said that he has been trying to fight drug trafficking for decades.
“Effectively fighting drug trafficking for decades brought me this measure from the government of the very society that we helped so much to stop the consumption of cocaine. It is absolutely paradoxical – but we are not taking a step back and we will never kneel,” he stressed.
Petro’s name is thus added to a list of world leaders on whom the US has imposed sanctions, including Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Sanctions were also imposed on his wife and son Petro and Armando Benedetti, Colombia’s interior minister.
Last weekend, Trump threatened to raise tariffs on Colombia and on Wednesday announced he would freeze all funding to the country.