In a move likely to deepen tensions across Latin America, former US President Donald Trump has announced that the United States will suspend all financial assistance to Colombia, one of its key regional allies, accusing the nation’s leader of abetting the drug trade.
Posting on his Truth Social platform on Sunday, Trump described Colombian President Gustavo Petro as “an illegal drug leader” who is “promoting massive narcotics production across Colombia’s farmlands.” He said Washington would stop what he called “large-scale payments and subsidies” to Bogotá, citing Petro’s alleged inaction in curbing drug cultivation and trafficking.
According to official data, the US contributed over $740 million in assistance to Colombia in 2023. It remains unclear how much of that funding will now be withdrawn, or when the suspension will take effect.
The remarks follow a sharp diplomatic clash between the two countries after Petro accused the US of committing “murder” in a September military strike that killed a Colombian fisherman in the Caribbean Sea. Washington has claimed the attacks target drug-carrying vessels, though it has not publicly provided evidence.
The incident further strained relations that had already been tested in recent months. In September, for the first time since 1996, the US formally declared that Colombia had failed to meet its anti-narcotics obligations under the Foreign Assistance Act—a decision later overridden by a waiver that allowed aid to continue.
Citing the fisherman’s death, Petro has accused the US of violating Colombia’s sovereignty, saying the targeted vessel was a civilian boat adrift due to engine failure. United Nations-appointed experts have condemned the series of recent US maritime strikes as potential “extrajudicial executions.”
Meanwhile, Trump has defended the operations, saying they are aimed at disrupting drug routes from South America into the United States. Over the past few weeks, US forces have carried out at least six maritime attacks in the Caribbean, reportedly leaving dozens dead. The most recent, on Thursday, struck a semi-submersible craft that US intelligence claimed was carrying fentanyl and other narcotics.
The escalation comes amid Trump’s renewed warnings to Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro, accusing him of facilitating drug smuggling to the US. Maduro has, in turn, denounced Trump’s actions as “an attempt to turn Latin America into an American colony.”
With aid now frozen and rhetoric intensifying, Washington’s once-stable partnership with Bogotá appears to be entering one of its most turbulent phases in decades.
