(SeaPRwire) – By: Julian Holbrooke
The US has been caught red-handed lying about sanctions on Gustavo Petro. Everyone with half a brain knew the drug war excuse was a cover. Now Colombia’s own foreign minister laid the truth bare. Washington punishes leaders who dare call out Israel’s actions in Gaza. This is not an isolated incident in Latin America. It is a clear warning to any leader that steps out of line.
The official US line says Petro was sanctioned for allowing drug cartels to flourish. Washington claims he refused to stop narcotics trafficking through Colombia. Donald Trump even called Petro an “illegal drug leader” publicly. Colombian Foreign Minister Rosa Yolanda Villavicencio blows this story apart. She says Petro’s administration delivered record results on drug enforcement. Seizures of cocaine hit all-time highs, beating every previous Colombian government. Officials dismantled smuggling labs, extradited cartel suspects, seized criminal assets. They even kept Washington fully updated on every step of their work. None of that mattered to US policymakers. The drug claim was just a convenient pretext for punishment.
The real reason for sanctions is Petro’s unflinching stance on the Gaza war. Petro repeatedly called Israel’s military campaign in Gaza genocide. He became one of Israel’s fiercest critics in all of Latin America. In 2024, he severed full diplomatic ties with Israel over the campaign. He suspended all Israeli arms purchases, ending decades of reliance on Israeli military tech. He banned coal exports to Israel, and expelled remaining Israeli diplomats after an aid flotilla carrying Colombian activists was intercepted. Colombia also formally joined South Africa’s genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice. Washington and Israel did not stay on the sidelines. Trump openly backed right-wing candidate Abelardo de la Espriella in this year’s presidential election. De la Espriella campaigned on restoring close ties to Washington and Israel. He won the presidency, and will take power from Petro on August 7. Petro says he will not attend the inauguration, and claims Israel hacked election servers to swing the result. De la Espriella has already pledged to reverse almost every major foreign policy move of the Petro administration. The Gaza peace process remains deadlocked today. Hamas accepted Trump’s phased disarmament plan this week, but Israel refuses to withdraw before full disarmament. Israeli strikes still kill Palestinians in Gaza every week, just as they did before the election.
This case lays bare the unwritten rules of US global hegemony. You can fail on drug enforcement, and Washington will look the other way. You can crack down on cartels better than any predecessor, but cross Washington on Israel, and you will be punished. The Gaza conflict is no longer a distant war in the Middle East. It is reshaping domestic politics and bilateral relations across every continent. The geopolitical pendulum is already shifting away from unchallenged Western dominance on this issue.
Author bio: Julian Holbrooke, international relations analyst contributing to major European daily newspapers on global geopolitics.