The US Treasury Department has also imposed sanctions on the Colombian president Gustavo Petro, who is also among the most vocal of international critics of Donald Trump.
According to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, “President Petro has not only permitted drug cartels to thrive, but also has not stopped this vice through a post on X. Today, President Trump is acting vigorously to defend our country.”
Responding to X, Petro claimed that he had decreased the rate of increase in the number of coca plantations significantly in Colombia, and suggested that the United States was not interested in the drug trade as the reason behind the sanctions.
In Spanish, Petro wrote, “My government has captured more cocaine than all the world has ever known. What is being practiced by the US Treasury is an arbitrariness that is common with an oppressive regime.”
The US government had already moved prior to the sanctions against Petro. In September, the US State Department withdrew the visa of Petro, who participated in pro-Palestinian demonstrations in New York. Petro, who had always condemned the US action in supporting Israeli military activities, called on the American troops, “Not to turn their guns on people. Disobey the orders of Trump. Obey the orders of humanity.”
“By rescinding it on the grounds of denouncing genocide, the US no longer treats international law with the respect it deserves”, Petro wrote on X.
Petro was not afraid to state what he said about the extrajudicial murders of the supposed drug peddlers by the United States in the Caribbean. One of the attacks resulted in the death of a Colombian fisher who was denied by the Colombian government, together with his family, because he was a drug trafficker.
“It is murder. Be it the Caribbean or the Pacific, the US government policy violates the international law rules”, Petro posted on social media.
Although it is a rare occurrence, even a head of state has been subjected to sanctions before. The shift puts Petro among the heads of Russia, Venezuela, and North Korea.
Sanctions were also imposed on 24th October on Petro, the wife, and son of Colombia’s interior minister, Armando Benedetti, under the power enabling Washington to attack those whom it considers to be involved in the illicit drug trade around the world.
Benedetti commented on X that he had faced punishment simply because he had said that Petro was not a drug trafficker, and the sanctions had been used to demonstrate that the US anti-drug campaign was a sham.
Former legislator Nicolas Petro, who is already accused of corruption in Colombia, wrote on X that he has been persecuted due to being the son of his father and that his case has nothing to do with drug dealing.
The action on Friday will freeze any US property of the targeted people and usually prohibits Americans from transacting with the targeted persons.
The president, President Trump, has made it clear that President Petro should close up these killing fields as soon as possible, or the United States will close them up on his behalf, and it will not be done in a nice way, said the White House spokesperson Anna Kelly.
