EL ESPECTADOR, October 24, 2025
(Translated by Eunice Gibson, CSN Volunteer Translator)
This Friday the United States included Gustavo Petro, the President of Colombia, in the “Clinton list”.
At the same time, the first lady, Verónica Alcocer; Interior Minister Armando Benedetti; and the President’s son, Nicolás Petro were also named.
This information came from the United States Treasury Department list of Specially Designated Nationals (SDN), a list of persons and entities sanctioned by the Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC) of the United States.
The sanctions include a block on all their assets in the United States, and it prohibits citizens and companies in the United States from carrying out any kind of transaction with them.
“Ever since President Gustavo Petro came to power, the production of cocaine in Colombia has exploded to record levels, flooding the United States and poisoning its citizens. President Petro has permitted the proliferation of the drug cartels and has refused to put a stop to their activities. Today President Trump is taking energetic measures to protect our nation and to make it clear that we won’t tolerate drug trafficking,” explained Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.
The President lost no time in reacting. “So the threat from Bernie Moreno was carried out, and I and my son and my wife are on the OFAC list,” he tweeted in reference to the Republican Senator who is originally from Colombia and is one of those most highly critical of the progressive President.
“My lawyer defending me in this will be Dan Kovalik of the U.S. Fighting drug trafficking effectively for decades has brought me this measure from the society that we have helped so much to deter their consumption of cocaine. A real paradox, but not a backward step, and on our knees, never.”
(Tweet omitted.)
The designation was announced within the framework of a profound diplomatic crisis between the two countries that have traditionally been allies. The tension has escalated during a military mobilization by the United States, which has been extended from the Caribbean to the Pacific near the Colombian coasts and has killed at least 37 people in nine bombings, including our fellow countrymen.
The offensive has produced international repudiation, not just from governments, but also from organizations that brand these actions as extrajudicial executions. That’s how, for example, Gustavo Petro, President of Colombia, has characterized them. At the same time, the White House has characterized him as a drug trafficking boss and a “lunatic”.
On Tuesday, after the first attack was perpetrated in the Pacific, Juanita Goebertus, director for the Americas of Human Rights Watch, insisted that these actions “constitute extrajudicial executions”.
In statements to the press on Thursday, the President of the United States, Donald Trump, stated that they would not be asking “necessarily for a declaration of war” from Congress, which is the entity with constitutional authority to do that.