“Since President Gustavo Petro took office, Colombia's cocaine production has soared to its highest level in decades, overwhelming the United States and poisoning Americans,” said Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. “President Petro has allowed drug cartels to flourish and refused to stop their activities. Today, President [США Дональд] “Trump is taking decisive action to protect our country and making it clear that we will not tolerate illegal drugs entering our country.”
As the US Treasury Department indicated, cocaine from Colombia is most often bought by drug cartels in Mexico and then smuggled into the United States.
As a result of American sanctions, all property and shares in the property of Petro and his relatives, located in the United States or in the possession or control of US persons, are blocked, the department emphasized.
Context
Colombia currently produces six times more cocaine than in 1993, when drug lord Pablo Escobar was killed, Bloomberg emphasized. The area of coca plantations has increased to 253 thousand hectares, which is enough to produce more than 2,600 tons of cocaine (exceeding the cocaine production volumes in Peru and Bolivia combined).
In June 2024, The New York Times wrote that drug dealers could no longer cope with the volumes of cocaine production that Colombia had reached.
Historically, Colombia has been a close ally of Washington and has been among the largest recipients of US aid (about $14 billion), including military equipment and training to fight drug cartels and insurgents. But relations between Trump and Petro quickly deteriorated as the two presidents took very different approaches to the war on drugs, migration and relations with Venezuela, Bloomberg pointed out.
In August 2025, the White House announced its readiness to “use all elements of power” to stop “the flow of drugs into the country.”
On October 18, Trump announced the destruction of a drug submarine. “The two surviving terrorists are returning to their countries of origin – Ecuador and Colombia – to be apprehended and brought to justice,” the head of the White House noted.
Petro in X demanded a response from the US after the US military struck a boat in Colombian territorial waters, which killed two people. According to him, “the fisherman Alejandro Caranza had nothing to do with the drug trade,” and the Colombian vessel allegedly drifted and signaled an accident.
On October 19, Trump called the President of Colombia an “illegal drug leader,” threatening forceful measures over drug trafficking. Colombia then recalled its ambassador to the United States for consultations with Petro.
