Colombian presidents defiant message to Trump | Political News

Colombian President Gustavo Petro told his supporters, “We do not kneel. We will not step back,” at a rally on Bolivar Square in Bogota as he and his household are positioned on a U.S. sanctions listing.

Petro, First Lady Veronica Alcocer, their eldest son, Nicolas, and Interior Minister Armando Benedetti have been blacklisted by the U.S. Treasury from touring to the U.S., and the Treasury has frozen any U.S. belongings they maintain.

The rift follows months of personal friction between President Donald Trump and Petro over U.S. deportations and strikes on suspected drug boats off the coast of South America.

Petro “has allowed drug cartels to flourish and refused to stop this activity,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a assertion. “President Trump is taking strong action to protect our nation and make clear that we will not tolerate the trafficking of drugs into our nation.”

After the sanctions have been announced, Petro named an attorney who he said would symbolize him in the U.S.

“Combating drug trafficking effectively for decades brings me this measure from the government of the society we helped so much to stop its use of cocaine,” Petro wrote on X. “Quite a paradox, but not one step back and never on our knees.”

U.S. also added Colombia, the top recipient of American help in the area, to a listing of nations failing to cooperate in the drug battle for the first time in virtually 30 years.

U.S. support is anticipated to lower by at least 20%, the AP reported, according to a U.S. official who spoke anonymously.

A State Department assertion on Friday didn’t specify the greenback quantity affected.

Trump had vowed to pull all funds to Colombia, which amounted to an estimated $230 million in the fiscal 12 months that ended Sept. 30, a vital lower from latest years, when the help exceeded $700 million, according to official figures.

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Trump also not too long ago threatened to impose tariffs on its exports, referring to Petro on social media in latest days as “an illegal drug leader.”

“He’s a guy that is making a lot of drugs,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Wednesday. “He better watch it, or we’ll take very serious action against him and his country.”

Petro said he would resort to the U.S. court system to defend himself.

“Against the calumnies that high-ranking officials have hurled at me on U.S. soil, I will defend myself judicially with American lawyers in the U.S. courts,” Petro wrote on X without naming Trump but citing a news report about his feedback.

The Colombian president has repeatedly defended his coverage, which strikes away from a repressive strategy and prioritizes reaching agreements with growers of coca leaf, the uncooked materials for cocaine, to encourage them to swap to other crops.

The authorities of Venezuela, also a goal of the Trump administration’s army operations, called the sanctions against Petro “illegal, illegitimate, and neocolonial actions that violate international law and the Charter of the United Nations.”

Many of the U.S. army strikes concentrating on traffickers accused of funneling medication to America have hit boats the U.S. says have come from Venezuela or taken place in waters off the Venezuelan coast. Petro has pushed back against the strikes, which have killed at least 43 since they started early last week.

The Colombian president initially rejected U.S. army flights of deported migrants, which led Trump to threaten tariffs.

The State Department said it might revoke Petro’s visa when he attended the U.N. General Assembly in New York because he told American troopers to disobey Trump’s orders.