U.S. sanctions Petro

The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the U.S. Department of the Treasury included this Friday on its list of sanctioned persons the president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro. The Colombian leader appears on the “specially designated nationals list”, also known as the “SDN list”, published on the Department of the Treasury website. The publication has been titled “Anti-narcotics Designations”.

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In the list, Nicolás Fernando Petro Burgos, the dignitary’s eldest son; Verónica Alcocer, the First Lady of Colombia; and the Minister of the Interior, Armando Benedetti, also appear. This sanction comes amid the tensions of recent days between Petro and the US President, Donald Trump, which began with the US attacks in the Caribbean and the Pacific.

The Dispute

After one of the bombings against a boat in the Caribbean that allegedly occurred in Colombian waters, Petro declared that Washington has committed “a murder” and violated the sovereignty of his country. A position that he has maintained with the new attacks in the Pacific.

His firm stance has led the occupant of the White House to label him as “leader of illegal drug trafficking”, thus unleashing new tensions between both countries. Trump has also threatened to take “very severe measures” against Petro and Colombia. “He’s a thug, he’s a bad man and he’s producing a lot of drugs. They have cocaine factories“, the president accused the press. Petro has rejected the accusations and assured that the American president is being “deceived by his lodges and advisors”, and affirmed that he himself has been the one who has most fought the criminal structures of drug trafficking in Colombia. Later, Petro made it clear that Trump “is not king in Colombia. We do not accept kings here.”