Petro says U.S. strikes and sanctions strained Colombia ties

Gustavo Petro used a wide-ranging CBS News interview with national correspondent Lilia Luciano to lay out how sharply relations with Washington have frayed as he prepares to leave office. The biggest fault lines were familiar: U.S. strikes on suspected drug-running boats in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific, the Trump administration’s sanctions on his inner circle, and a visa revocation that underscored how far the quarrel had spread beyond counternarcotics policy.

Petro said Colombia had asked the United States to stop the boat strikes and respect international law. He argued that the attacks were not only illegal but ineffective, and said some of those killed may have been innocent civilians. Washington has defended the strikes as part of its anti-drug campaign, turning the Caribbean and eastern Pacific into flashpoints in a broader fight over how to confront narcotics trafficking. For Petro, the issue has become a test of whether the United States is willing to treat Colombia as a partner or as a target.

The confrontation escalated on September 27, 2025, when the U.S. State Department revoked Petro’s visa after he urged U.S. soldiers in New York to disobey President Donald Trump during a pro-Palestinian protest. The blowback in Bogotá was immediate. Colombia’s foreign minister renounced her U.S. visa in protest, and the dispute widened further on October 24, 2025, when the Trump administration imposed sanctions on Petro, his wife Verónica Alcocer, his son Nicolás Petro and Interior Minister Armando Benedetti. That same day, Washington said it would not certify Colombia’s counternarcotics efforts.

The brief thaw that followed showed how much both governments still needed each other, even as the politics soured. Petro and Trump held their first phone call in early January 2026 and met at the White House on February 3, 2026, but major disagreements remained over counternarcotics policy, energy and U.S. pressure on Colombia. Petro has also argued that the hostility is political, saying the United States has opposed his progressive, left-wing government because of its criticism of Washington, including on Gaza.

The stakes are unusually high because the relationship is not new or narrow. The United States and Colombia established diplomatic relations on June 19, 1822, and for generations have cooperated on security, trade and anti-drug policy. Petro’s parting critique suggests that the next phase of the relationship may depend less on old strategic habits than on whether Washington and Bogotá can find common ground on drugs, regional diplomacy and the limits of force.