U.S. President Donald Trump announced Sunday that he will terminate all U.S. payments and subsidies to Colombia, accusing President Gustavo Petro of failing to curb drug production and even promoting it. The move intensifies tensions between Washington and one of its longstanding Latin American partners.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump labelled Petro “an illegal drug leader” and warned that if Bogotá does not shut down illicit operations, the U.S. would do so “for him, and it won’t be done nicely.” He claimed Petro “does nothing to stop” the nation’s drug trade despite “large scale payments and subsidies from the USA.”
Trump’s announcement comes from his base at Mar-a-Lago, where he asserted that Colombia under Petro is “strongly encouraging the massive production of drugs, in big and small fields.”
He stated, “AS OF TODAY, THESE PAYMENTS, OR ANY OTHER FORM OF PAYMENT, OR SUBSIDIES, WILL NO LONGER BE MADE TO COLOMBIA.”
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Earlier, tensions had already escalated between the two governments. Trump revoked Petro’s U.S. visa while the Colombian leader was attending the U.N. General Assembly, after Petro urged American soldiers to defy orders from Trump.
Petro swiftly responded with allegations that a recent U.S. strike in Caribbean waters amounted to an assassination and a violation of Colombian sovereignty. He named the victim as Alejandro Carranza, a coastal fisherman from Santa Marta, claiming the man had been adrift, with one engine disabled, and bore no connection to drug trafficking.
“U.S. government officials have committed murder and violated our sovereignty in territorial waters,” Petro wrote on X. He demanded legal action in U.S. courts and international bodies.
Bogotá’s Interior Minister, Armando Benedetti, countered that Carranza was carrying a cocaine-laden boat and that repatriation would treat him as a criminal, even though the incident occurred in international waters.
Meanwhile, Ecuador confirmed that one of the repatriated men was Ecuadorian and said investigations found no crimes committed on its soil.
Relations had already strained earlier in 2025 when the U.S. froze $70 million in USAID environmental funds in Colombia, targeting Amazon conservation projects. Colombia also recently halted arms purchases from the U.S. after being decertified as a major anti-drug partner.