Colombia’s long and complicated relationship with the United States took a dramatic turn this week, as President Donald Trump’s administration officially designated the Andean nation as “failing” to cooperate in the global fight against drugs. The decision, announced on Monday, September 15, 2025, and reported widely the following day, thrusts Colombia into a spotlight it would rather avoid, raising questions about the future of U.S.-Colombian cooperation and the broader war on drugs.
The move places Colombia on a list alongside Afghanistan, Bolivia, Myanmar, and Venezuela—countries Washington says have “failed demonstrably” to adhere to international counternarcotics agreements and take necessary measures against drug trafficking. The U.S. State Department, in a statement on X (formerly Twitter), minced no words: “Under Petro’s misguided leadership, coca cultivation & cocaine production in Colombia has increased to historic levels.”
For Colombia, the world’s leading producer of cocaine, the decision is more than symbolic. It carries the threat of sanctions, including cuts to U.S. assistance and opposition to loans or aid from international development banks. However, in a move that tempered immediate consequences, President Trump issued a waiver, allowing critical U.S. cooperation with Colombia—especially on counter-narcotics—to continue. “Results matter – we must see progress and it must be soon!” the State Department insisted.
Colombian President Gustavo Petro, visibly frustrated, responded during a cabinet meeting, lamenting, “The United States is decertifying us after dozens of deaths of police officers and soldiers” in the fight against drug cartels and armed groups funded by drug trafficking. Petro, under intense pressure to show results in the final stretch of his term, pointed out, “They decertify us after we are the ones who have seized the most cocaine in all of history, the ones who have dismantled thousands of laboratories.”
Indeed, the numbers are staggering. According to the United Nations Integrated Illicit Crop Monitoring System (SIMCI), by the end of 2023, illicit coca crops in Colombia had reached 253,000 hectares—a fivefold increase from the 48,000 hectares recorded in 2013. The UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) confirmed this figure, and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) reported that Colombia is the source of 85 percent of the cocaine entering the United States.
Despite these daunting statistics, the Colombian government has tried to shift the narrative by emphasizing its record seizures of cocaine. In 2024, Colombian authorities confiscated nearly 900 tons of the drug, up from 746 tons the previous year, and in just the first half of 2025, seizures exceeded 500 tons. President Petro argued, “What we are doing does not really have to do with the Colombian people. Rather, it is to stop American society from getting their noses dirty from the desire to work, work, work,” referencing the insatiable demand for cocaine in the U.S. and Europe.
The decertification process, while based on certain criteria, is ultimately a political decision. As Elizabeth Dickinson of the International Crisis Group (ICG) explained to El País, “Although the certification process is based on clear criteria, the decision is made by the U.S. president and is deeply influenced by political and diplomatic considerations. Previous administrations have repeatedly certified Colombia despite concerns about insufficient compliance because, in their view, maintaining close cooperation with Bogotá was more favorable to Washington.”
However, the Trump administration’s patience appears to have run out. Forced eradication of coca crops in Colombia has declined sharply, with less than 10,000 hectares eradicated in 2024. This drop, more than any other statistic, raised doubts in Washington about Bogotá’s commitment to the war on drugs. The U.S. State Department’s statement made clear that the perceived lack of progress could no longer be overlooked.
Petro, for his part, has pushed back against the narrative coming from Washington. In a pointed message on social media directed at the U.S. embassy, he wrote: “You begin with a factual lie, gentlemen of the US embassy. The growth of coca crops occurred during the government of Duque, and with forced fumigation. It is the policy of the United States that has failed. For the cultivation of coca leaf to decrease, what is needed is not glyphosate dropped from small planes, but a reduction in the demand for cocaine, fundamentally in the US and Europe.”
The decertification announcement comes at a time when U.S.-Colombian relations are already under strain. Earlier this year, Trump and Petro clashed publicly over repatriation flights, with Petro initially refusing to accept deportees due to what he described as undignified treatment. The standoff was eventually resolved, but not before Trump threatened tariffs that rattled Colombia’s economy. The episode foreshadowed the current turbulence between two leaders whose political philosophies could hardly be further apart.
Meanwhile, the U.S. has not limited its counternarcotics focus to Colombia. On the same day as the decertification announcement, the U.S. military carried out a strike on a Venezuelan drug vessel in international waters, killing three people. This marks the second such attack in recent weeks, following the reported killing of 11 people in a previous strike on a speedboat. These lethal actions have sparked concern among human rights experts, who question their legality and necessity, especially as Venezuela does not rank among the top cocaine-producing nations according to UNODC data.
Trump has used these operations to underscore his administration’s tough approach, accusing Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro of leading “one of the largest cocaine trafficking networks in the world.” However, as Al Jazeera reported, U.S. and UN data do not support Venezuela’s prominence as a cocaine source, with Colombia, Peru, and Bolivia remaining the leading producers.
The Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA), a U.S.-based advocacy and human rights group, criticized the decertification policy as “an antiquated, blunt, counterproductive foreign policy tool that should no longer exist.” WOLA warned, “The White House must not use decertification to punish the people of Colombia, a longtime partner nation that has been the world’s largest cocaine producer since the 1990s, and is now facing mounting security challenges.” The organization acknowledged that Petro’s government has “failed to meet its own security and governance objectives,” but argued this was due more to poor management than ill intent. “A decertification would directly harm the Colombian people and reduce the Colombian government’s ability to protect them from violent criminal and insurgent groups,” WOLA concluded.
As Colombia faces the fallout from U.S. decertification, the stakes are high for both nations. With illicit crops at record highs, forced eradication at historic lows, and political trust in short supply, the path forward remains uncertain. Yet, one thing is clear: the war on drugs, and the partnership between Bogotá and Washington, has entered a new and precarious chapter.