The sanctions come as Petro and Trump clash over immigration, drug policy and US strikes on boats in international waters.

The United States Department of the Treasury has slapped sanctions on Colombian President Gustavo Petro, his family and the South American country’s interior minister, Armando Benedetti.

Friday’s decision marks a significant escalation in the ongoing feud between the left-wing Petro and his US counterpart, the right-wing Donald Trump.

In a statement, the US Treasury accused Petro of failing to rein in Colombia’s cocaine industry and of shielding criminal groups from accountability.

The Treasury cited Petro’s “Total Peace” plan, an initiative designed to bring an end to Colombia’s six-decade-long internal conflict through negotiations with armed rebels and criminal organisations.

“Since President Gustavo Petro came to power, cocaine production in Colombia has exploded to the highest rate in decades, flooding the United States and poisoning Americans,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement.

“President Petro has allowed drug cartels to flourish and refused to stop this activity.”

Petro, a prolific social media user, quickly shot back that the Treasury’s decision was the culmination of longstanding Republican threats, including from US Senator Bernie Moreno, a critic of his presidency.

“Bernie Moreno’s threat has indeed been fulfilled,” Petro wrote on the social media platform X. “My wife, my children, and I have been placed on the OFAC [Office of Foreign Assets Control] list.”

He argued that his country had been “fighting drug trafficking effectively for decades” and suggested he would contest the sanctions in the US court system.