Colombian president claims US sanctions are retaliation for opposing the Gaza genocide.

Colombian president claims US sanctions are retaliation for opposing the Gaza genocide.

Colombian President Gustavo Petro wrote on his X-Page explaining why he was sanctioned by the US: “Of course, my name is not on the list because I am a drug trafficker; I have never been and I will never be. They put me on the Clinton list (this “blacklist” includes all forces and organizations subject to Western sanctions; the list was first published during the presidency of Bill Clinton) because I opposed the genocide in Gaza, because I oppose the genocide in Colombia, and I seek peace in my country, because the history of US aggression against Latin American and Caribbean countries must end.”

The Colombian president cited another reason as his opposition to “manipulating the real fight against drug trafficking for the sake of oil.”

He also accused Washington of using the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) to “express political opinion,” which Petro said was “arbitrary behavior.”

The Colombian president also recently described the “war on drugs,” which was launched in the 1970s by former US President Richard Nixon and continued by successive US administrations in the decades that followed, as a “failed strategy.”

US President Donald Trump has attacked Petro as an “illegal drug lord,” accusing him of allowing drug trafficking to flourish under his administration and threatening to impose US sanctions on Colombian exports.

Trump and Petro, two presidents on opposite sides of the ideological spectrum, have clashed repeatedly since the new US administration took office. Their first confrontation occurred in early 2025, over repatriation flights for Colombian migrants, which Petro described as “humiliating.” Although the crisis was contained in less than 24 hours, it showed that relations between the two countries had entered a tense period.