Washington.- The United States imposed sanctions on Colombian President Gustavo Petro on Friday, the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced on its website.

“Since President Gustavo Petro came to power, cocaine production in Colombia has skyrocketed to its highest level in decades, flooding the United States and poisoning Americans,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said without providing evidence.

The statement accused Petro of"allowing drug cartels to flourish and refusing to stop this activity." It also reiterated the Trump administration's position of "protecting our nation and making it clear that we will not tolerate drug trafficking in our country."

The sanctions mean that "all property and interests in property of the designated persons that are in the United States or in the possession or control of U.S. persons are blocked and must be reported to OFAC."

In addition, they prohibit all transactions by U.S. citizens or within (or in transit through) the United States that involve property or interests in property of blocked persons.

Also added to the “blacklist” were Petro’s wife, Verónica del Socorro Alcocer, his eldest son Nicolás Petro, and Interior Minister Armando Benedetti.

US President Donald Trump threatened over the weekend to raise tariffs on Colombia and said Wednesday that all funding to the South American country had been halted.

Petro, Colombia’s first leftist president, confirmed Washington’s announcement and called it paradoxical. “My wife, my children and I have entered the OFAC list,” he wrote on his X account. “Fighting drug trafficking for decades and effectively brings me this measure from the government of the society that we helped so much to stop their cocaine use.”

“Quite a paradox, but not one step back and never on our knees,” he added.