The US has placed sanctions on Colombia's left-wing president, Gustavo Petro, accusing him of failing to curb drug trafficking.
President Petro has allowed drug cartels to flourish and refused to stop this activity, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement.
Sanctions have also been imposed on Colombia's Interior Minister Armando Benedetti, as well as Petro's wife and eldest son. They include barring them from accessing assets and properties they may have in the US.
Colombia was once a close ally of Washington's war on drugs, receiving hundreds of millions of dollars annually in military assistance. But Petro and Trump have clashed frequently since Trump's return to power.
Bessent stated that since Petro, a former guerrilla, took office, cocaine production in Colombia has exploded to the highest rate in decades, flooding the United States and poisoning Americans.
He emphasized that Trump was taking strong action and would not tolerate drug trafficking into the US. The Treasury identified Colombia as the world's top exporter of cocaine, indicating it poses a significant drug threat to the US.
In a separate statement, the state department revealed it would not certify Colombia's counter-narcotics efforts.
Petro has publicly denied the US accusations, asserting on X that he has been fighting drug trafficking for decades and has collaborated with the US in efforts to reduce cocaine consumption.
In recent weeks, the US military has intensified operations in the southern Caribbean, targeting vessels alleged without substantiation to be engaged in drug trafficking.
Last week, Trump announced a suspension of payments and subsidies to Colombia following Petro's previous condemnation of US airstrikes against suspected drug vessels in Caribbean waters as an act of tyranny.
Imposing sanctions on a head of state, while rare, is not unprecedented; leaders from countries like Russia, North Korea, and Venezuela have been similarly sanctioned.
