On October 24, 2025, diplomatic relations between the United States and Colombia reached their lowest point in decades, as the Trump administration imposed sweeping sanctions on Colombian President Gustavo Petro, his family, and a top political ally. The move, which the US Treasury framed as a crackdown on drug trafficking, has sparked a fierce war of words, regional backlash, and concerns about escalating military tensions in Latin America.
According to Reuters, the US Treasury Department announced sanctions against Petro, his wife Veronica, their son Nicolas, and Colombian Interior Minister Armando Benedetti, accusing them of “failing demonstrably” to stop illegal drug production. US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent declared, “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.” Bessent further alleged that Petro “allowed drug cartels to flourish and refused to stop this activity.”
The sanctions freeze any US assets belonging to those targeted and generally bar Americans from dealing with them. In a statement, White House spokesperson Anna Kelly warned, “President Trump has been clear that President Petro better close up these killing fields immediately, or the United States will close them up for him, and it won’t be done nicely.” The move places Petro in the same sanctions category as the leaders of Russia and North Korea—a rare and symbolic rebuke for a head of state from a country that, until recently, was considered Washington’s most important ally in South America.
President Petro, for his part, has vigorously denied the US allegations. On Friday afternoon, he posted on X, “What the US Treasury says is a lie. My government did not increase cocaine, it did the opposite, my government has seized more cocaine than in the whole history of the world.” Speaking to thousands of supporters in Bogotá, Petro called the sanctions “a complete paradox,” pointing out Colombia’s decades-long cooperation with the US in fighting drug trafficking. He added, “It is quite a paradox to be sanctioned by a country with high rates of cocaine consumption.”
Petro’s wife and son also responded to the sanctions. Armando Benedetti, Colombia’s interior minister, said on X that he was penalized merely for stating that Petro was not a drug trafficker, calling the US anti-drug fight a “sham.” Nicolas Petro, already facing corruption charges in Colombia, asserted he was targeted for being his father’s son and that his legal troubles had nothing to do with drug trafficking.
Underlying these public volleys are deepening policy rifts and personal animosities. Tensions had already been rising after US President Donald Trump accused Petro of “encouraging large-scale drug production.” Petro swiftly rebuked the claim, urging Trump to “read more carefully about Colombia and identify where the real drug traffickers stand.” According to MNA, the Cuban leader Diaz-Canel expressed “complete solidarity” with Petro, denouncing the US “arrogance” and pledging, “We will not retreat a single step, and we will never bow down.” Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez also condemned the deployment of a US aircraft carrier strike group in the Caribbean, warning that the move threatens the region’s Zone of Peace and signals potential military aggression against Venezuela.
Indeed, the US military buildup has fueled regional anxieties. On the same Friday the sanctions were announced, the US military conducted its tenth strike on a suspected drug-running boat in the Caribbean Sea, killing six people, Los Angeles Times reported. The Pentagon ordered the USS Gerald R. Ford and its strike group to deploy to US Southern Command, with officials saying the goal was to “bolster US capacity to detect, monitor, and disrupt illicit actors and activities that compromise the safety and prosperity of the United States.”
President Trump has drawn a direct parallel between his administration’s anti-drug campaign and the post-9/11 war on terrorism. He recently declared drug cartels “unlawful combatants” and described the US as being in an “armed conflict” with them, invoking the same legal authority used after September 11, 2001. When asked whether Congress would be asked to declare war on the cartels, Trump replied, “I think we’re just going to kill people that are bringing drugs into our country, OK? We’re going to kill them, you know? They’re going to be like, dead.”
The increasingly militarized approach has drawn sharp criticism from Petro and others in the region. Petro has accused the US of murder, arguing that strikes on alleged drug boats have killed civilians and lack legal justification. He told The Washington Post, “It’s murder. Because they don’t have weapons, because they don’t have the capacity, and because that’s not how you stop drug trafficking.” He further accused the US of blowing up a fishing boat in Colombian waters, killing a Colombian citizen.
Sanctions and military strikes are not the only sources of friction. In September 2025, the US revoked Petro’s visa after he urged US soldiers to disobey orders at a pro-Palestinian rally in New York. The State Department also moved to decertify Colombia as a partner in antidrug efforts, though a national interest waiver allowed aid and cooperation to continue. Trump has threatened to raise tariffs on Colombia and announced that all funding to the country had been halted. These actions, coupled with the personal targeting of Petro’s inner circle, have led experts to warn of “the worst moment in bilateral history.” Kevin Whitaker, a former US ambassador to Colombia, remarked, “The trajectory is downward.”
Not everyone in Washington supports the current approach. Brett Bruen, a former Obama administration adviser, criticized the “cowboy theatrics,” warning they are “creating very combustible conditions we will soon have to contend with on our doorstep.” Elizabeth Dickinson, a senior analyst at the International Crisis Group, noted, “To suggest that Colombia is not trying is false and disingenuous. If the US has a partner in counternarcotics in Latin America, it’s Colombia. Colombian forces have been working hand in hand with the Americans for literally four decades. They are the best, most capable and frankly most willing partner the US has in the region.”
Still, the Trump administration’s actions appear aimed at keeping pressure tightly focused on Petro and his closest associates, rather than the country as a whole. Geoff Ramsey, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, observed, “The administration seems to want to avoid imposing broad pressure on the country as a whole that Petro can try and use to try and score political points ahead of next year’s election.”
As the crisis unfolds, the future of US-Colombia relations—and the broader security architecture of the region—hangs in the balance. With accusations, counter-accusations, and military maneuvers now the order of the day, both sides appear unwilling to back down. The world will be watching closely to see whether diplomacy can eventually prevail over confrontation in a relationship once hailed as a model of hemispheric cooperation.
