MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Petro says he asked Trump to lift his OFAC sanctions in a phone call

Petro, his wife, his eldest son and Interior Minister Armando Benedetti were placed on that list in October 2025

Colombian President Gustavo Petro said he held a phone conversation on Friday with his US counterpart, Donald Trump, in which he asked for support in removing the sanctions on him and his family under the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) list, known as the Clinton List. According to the Colombian leader and a statement from the Presidency, Trump replied that he “will do his best” to review the case. The White House did not officially confirm the call.

Petro, his wife, his eldest son and Interior Minister Armando Benedetti were placed on that list in October 2025. Administered by the Treasury Department, it blocks access to the financial system for individuals flagged over alleged ties to drug trafficking. At the time, Washington argued that the left-wing president's policies had favored the expansion of coca crops. “I was surprised that he did not know that my family and I were still on the OFAC list; he promised me he would take action on the matter,” Petro wrote on the social network X, where he described the exchange as “friendly.”

Specialists in international financial law note that removal from the list does not depend solely on the US president, but on an administrative review process by the Treasury, which assesses each case. Trump's political backing could give momentum to the procedure, which Petro's legal team had already begun, but the final decision rests with the competent authorities. Eight months after his inclusion, no drug-trafficking offense has been proven against him.

According to the Colombian statement, the two leaders also addressed anti-drug cooperation. The Presidency reported that Colombia had met a target of eradicating some 30,000 hectares of coca and expects to reach 41,000 by the end of 2026, and that Petro asked to maintain the crop-substitution program —funded through December 31— with the incoming government. The Colombian leader added that Trump committed to “engage in dialogue with the incoming government” to foster an understanding with the opposition, and said, wryly, that the Republican “did not know” he had not supported president-elect Abelardo de la Espriella. Those claims were not confirmed by Washington.

The conversation was the first direct contact between the two since their meeting at the White House in February, which eased months of bilateral tension. Petro has kept an ambivalent stance toward Washington: on the one hand, he criticized US “intervention” in Colombian politics and the strikes on vessels in the Caribbean and Pacific —which UN experts have described as extrajudicial executions— and on the other, he reactivated extradition orders for criminal leaders and highlights eradication figures. De la Espriella, who takes office on August 7, has aligned himself with Trump's hardline approach and announced that he will end the peace negotiations and that Colombia will join the “Shield of the Americas,” the regional coalition promoted by Washington.