US sanctions Petro and family and alleges connection to drug trafficking

Treasury Secretary says Petro allowed drug cartels to prosper and did not stop this activity. Scott Bessent declared that drug production in Colombia had the fastest pace in decades after Petro took over the country, causing the substances to flood into the US.

President (Donald) Trump is taking strong action to protect our nation and make it clear that we will not tolerate drug trafficking into our country.
Scott Bessent, Secretary of the Treasury

Treasury claims that Colombian cocaine is purchased by Mexican cartels, which smuggle the substances to the US. In a statement, the department accuses Petro of siding with the “narco-terrorist regime of Nicolás Maduro (Venezuela) and the Los Soles Cartel.”

The US says that sanctions on Nicolás and Verônica are due to the duo having or trying to provide some type of support in support of Petro. In the case of Petro’s eldest son, the country says he was arrested in Colombia in 2023 for money laundering and illicit enrichment, on charges of having received money from drug traffickers for “total peace” efforts in the country. Verônica, according to the USA, was nominated by her husband to be ambassador on a special mission, but the local court prevented the appointment because the president could not nominate her for the role.

The fourth sanctioned is Armando Benedetti, appointed to several high-ranking positions in the Colombian government. The US cites an audio from 2023 in which Armando addresses his involvement in campaign financing and obtaining votes for Petro.

Petro says that talking about the Treasury is a “lie”. In a post on X, he wrote that his government had reduced the growth rates of coca leaf cultivation. “During my administration, cocaine prices did not skyrocket; on the contrary, my administration seized more cocaine than in the entire history of the world. What the US Treasury is doing is the arbitrariness of an oppressive regime,” he said.