Colombia Rejects US Sanctions on its President
Colombian President Gustavo Petro declared on Friday, October 24, that he holds neither assets nor bank accounts in the US.
HAVANA TIMES – The diplomatic crisis between Colombia and the United States reached a new point of tension on Friday, October 24, 2025, after Washington imposed financial sanctions on President Gustavo Petro, his family, and one of his ministers. The Colombian government strongly rejected the measure, calling it “an affront to the Colombian people.”
The Treasury Department announced the inclusion of Petro, his wife Veronica Alcocer, his son Nicolas Petro, and Interior Minister Armando Benedetti on the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) list known as the “Clinton List” for alleged ties to drug trafficking. This implies the freezing of their assets in the US and a ban on transactions with them.
“Since President Gustavo Petro came to power, cocaine production in Colombia has skyrocketed to its highest level in decades,” claimed a statement issued by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.
For his part, Petro called his inclusion on the list a “paradox,” and “an arbitrariness typical of an oppressive regime,” given his ‘decades’ of fighting drug trafficking.
“Fighting drug trafficking for decades with effectiveness brings me this measure from the government of the society we helped so much to halt its cocaine consumption,” Petro wrote on social media.
“Nothing to Freeze”
Hours later, the president appeared before thousands of citizens in Bogota’s Plaza de Bolívar at a march “for peace, sovereignty, and democracy” that he himself had called. The demonstration was attended by thousands of Colombians to express their support for the president amid escalating tensions with the US, as well as their support for his proposal to convene a Constitutional assembly.
Speaking to the large crowd, Petro assured that the financial sanctions imposed by his US counterpart, Donald Trump, are aimed at “making his government kneel.”
“Mr. Trump has no idea who I am, what I think, or the history of this country. He doesn’t even know clearly where Colombia is (…) No matter what they do to me, I have never let greed into my heart,” he said.
He added that he has no assets or accounts in the United States: “I have never done business there; I don’t have a dollar in the United States; there are no accounts to freeze. I have no desire to do business in the United States, nor will I ever have any in the future,” he declared.
Diplomatic crisis
The Colombian Foreign Ministry issued a brief statement: “Colombia remains open to diplomatic dialogue and mutual respect between sovereign nations,” although it regretted the “unilateral decisions that affect bilateral trust.”
Relations between Bogotá and Washington, historically close in terms of trade, military cooperation, and economic assistance, have been shaken since Trump returned to the White House in January, due to disagreements between the two leaders on immigration policy, anti-drug measures, and the Israeli offensive in Gaza.
In mid-October, amid US attacks on boats in the Caribbean and Pacific under the pretext of an “armed conflict” against drugs, tensions escalated further when Trump called Petro a “drug lord,” and announced the suspension of economic aid to the South American country for its alleged inaction in the fight against drug trafficking.
In September, the US removed Colombia from the list of countries that had combated drug trafficking in the past year and revoked Petro’s visa for urging US soldiers to disobey Trump’s orders during a pro-Palestinian demonstration in New York.
Published in Spanish by Confidencial and translated and posted in English by Havana Times