US adds Colombian President to the 'Kingpin' list
Treasury blacklists Petro, his wife, son, and associates with sanctions usually reserved for narcos
The US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets (OFAC) sanctioned the President of Colombia Friday, adding him to a list usually reserved for narco-traffickers.
The move represents a sharp escalation in an ongoing campaign by the administration of US President Donald Trump to pressure and attack Petro.
“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,” said Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, in a statement announcing the decision.
The Treasury also criticized Petro’s “Total Peace” plan to end decades of conflict in in the nation by negotiating with criminal armed groups, saying his actions “have provided narco-terrorist organizations with benefits under the auspices of” peace-building. It also repeated government claims that Petro is “erratic,” and a threat to US national security.
OFAC sanction bars US companies from doing business with blacklisted people and companies.
The production of coca, the raw ingredient in cocaine, has soared every year since Colombia signed its historic peace deal with rebel group the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) in 2016.
The increase in production began under former President Ivan Duque, whose 2018 campaign was financed by drug traffickers from the Caribbean region. Duque stonewalled or dismantled aspects of the plan that included drug substitution programs and state investment in Colombian conflict zones.
However, Duque was a strong ally of the first Trump administration while Petro has criticized the US president’s complicity in a genocide in Palestine and US killings in the Caribbean of alleged drug smugglers, including at least one Colombian fisherman.
The US revoked Petro’s US visa last month when he criticized the US at the United Nations General assembly in New York City, and has threatened to impose blanket tariffs on the country.
Earlier this year, the Trump administration also decertified Colombia as a reliable partner in the US ‘War on Drugs,”
Leaders of the two countries have feuded since Trump took office in January over Trump’s migration policy, the killings in the Caribbean, US support for Israel, and even Trump’s decision to send the National Guard to US cities.
In response the the sanctions, Petro pointed out that Colombia has carried out record drug seizures every year since he took office. He has long advocated pursuing criminals at the top of organized crime structures rather than the rural poor who grow coca leaves, often in regions plagued by conflict.
“Fighting drug trafficking effectively for decades brings me this measure from the government of the society that we have helped so much,” in anti-drug-efforts, said Petro following the announcement.
He also blamed Colombian born US Senator Bernie Moreno, whose “threats have finally been carried out.” Moreno has been a vocal advocate of blacklisting Petro, who he has falsely claimed is funded by narco-trafficking groups.
Petro’s has accused Moreno’s family, who still live in Colombia, of laundering money for drug traffickers. Moreno’s brother has been implicated in financial crimes in both Colombia and Ecuador.
He also said that US human rights lawyer Dan Kovalik would represent the president in an attempt to lift the sanctions that followed escalated tensions over Trump’s orders to bomb fishing boats suspected of trafficking drugs in the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean.
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This is an installment of the “Ship’s Log” series, more personal entries on the beats we cover for paid subscribers.
This piece contains additional reporting by Adriaan Alsema, of Colombia Reports.
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Hasta pronto, piratas!
I don't want to be that person but "dismantles" is a typo for dismantled.