{"id":169348,"date":"2025-10-25T09:52:47","date_gmt":"2025-10-25T09:52:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/us-places-sanctions-on-colombian-president-over-alleged-failure-to-stop-cartels-the-guardian\/"},"modified":"2025-10-25T09:52:47","modified_gmt":"2025-10-25T09:52:47","slug":"us-places-sanctions-on-colombian-president-over-alleged-failure-to-stop-cartels-the-guardian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/us-places-sanctions-on-colombian-president-over-alleged-failure-to-stop-cartels-the-guardian\/","title":{"rendered":"US places sanctions on Colombian president over alleged failure to stop cartels – The Guardian"},"content":{"rendered":"

Treasury accuses Gustavo Petro of \u2018allowing drug cartels to flourish\u2019 as president attacks Trump\u2019s \u2018oppressive regime\u2019
The US treasury department has announced sanctions on Colombian president Gustavo Petro, one of Donald Trump\u2019s harshest international critics.
\u201cPresident Petro has allowed drug cartels to flourish and refused to stop this activity,\u201d treasury secretary Scott Bessent wrote in a post on X. \u201cToday President Trump is taking strong action to protect our nation.\u201d
In a response on X, Petro said that he has greatly reduced the growth rate of coca plantations in Colombia, and implied that the drug trade was not the United States\u2019s underlying motivation behind the sanctions.
\u201cMy government has seized more cocaine than any in the entire history of the world.\u201d Petro wrote in Spanish. \u201cWhat the US treasury is doing is an arbitrariness typical of an oppressive regime.\u201d
The sanctions are not the first action the US government has taken against Petro. The US state department revoked Petro\u2019s visa in September<\/a> after he took part in pro-Palestinian protests in New York. Petro, who has consistently criticized US support of Israeli military actions,<\/a> urged American soldiers to \u201cnot to point their guns at people. Disobey the orders of Trump. Obey the orders of humanity.\u201d
\u201cRevoking it for denouncing genocide shows the US no longer respects international law,\u201d Petro added in a post on X.
Petro did not mince his words when speaking on the United States\u2019 extrajudicial killings of alleged drug traffickers<\/a> in the Caribbean. One attack killed a Colombian fisher whose family and the Colombian government denied he was a drug trafficker.
\u201cIt is murder. Whether in the Caribbean or Pacific, the US government strategy breaks the norms of international law,\u201d Petro wrote on social media.
While rare, the imposition of sanctions on a head of state is not unprecedented. The move adds Petro to a list that includes the leaders of Russia, Venezuela and North Korea.
Petro\u2019s wife, son and Armando Benedetti, Colombia\u2019s interior minister, were also hit with sanctions on Friday under the authority that allows Washington to target those it accuses of being involved in the global illicit drug trade.
On X, Benedetti said he had been penalized for merely stating that Petro was not a drug trafficker, and that the sanctions proved the US anti-drug fight was a \u201csham\u201d.
Former lawmaker Nicolas Petro, who is already facing corruption charges<\/a> in Colombia, said on X he had been targeted for being his father\u2019s son and that his pending case has nothing to do with drug trafficking.
Friday\u2019s action freezes any US assets of those targeted, and generally bars Americans from dealing with them.
\u201cPresident 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\u2019t be done nicely,\u201d said White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly.<\/p>\n

source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Treasury accuses Gustavo Petro of \u2018allowing drug cartels to flourish\u2019 as president attacks Trump\u2019s \u2018oppressive regime\u2019The US treasury department has announced sanctions on Colombian president Gustavo Petro, one of Donald Trump\u2019s harshest international critics.\u201cPresident Petro has allowed drug cartels to flourish and refused to stop this activity,\u201d treasury secretary Scott Bessent wrote in a post […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":169349,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-169348","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-us","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169348","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=169348"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169348\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/169349"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=169348"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=169348"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=169348"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}