US imposes sanctions on Petro family and minister over cocaine trade

The United States on Friday imposed sanctions on Colombian President Gustavo Petro, his wife Verónica Alcocer, his eldest son Nicolás Petro and Interior Minister Armando Benedetti, accusing them of enabling the international cocaine trade and sharply escalating a diplomatic feud between the two countries. The Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control designated the four under counternarcotics authorities, freezing any assets they may hold in the United States and barring U.S. persons and entities from transacting with them.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement that since Petro took office in 2022 cocaine production in Colombia has risen to the highest levels in decades and that the measures were intended to protect the United States from the flow of narcotics. President Trump has also publicly threatened to cut aid, impose tariffs and take other measures against Colombia over what his administration describes as failures to curb trafficking.

The sanctions come against a backdrop of growing bilateral tensions that include a U.S. decision last month to decertify Colombia as a cooperating partner in the counternarcotics effort for the first time in...