The US has placed sanctions on Colombia's left-wing president, Gustavo Petro, accusing him of failing to curb drug trafficking.
President Petro has allowed drug cartels to flourish and refused to stop this activity, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement.
Sanctions have also been imposed on Colombia's Interior Minister Armando Benedetti, as well as Petro's wife and eldest son. They include barring them from accessing assets and properties they may have in the US.
Colombia was once a close ally of Washington's war on drugs, receiving hundreds of millions of dollars annually in military assistance. But Petro and Trump have clashed frequently since Trump's return to power.
Bessent said that since Petro, a former guerrilla, came to power, cocaine production in Colombia has exploded to the highest rate in decades, flooding the United States and poisoning Americans.
The Treasury stated that Colombia is the world's top exporter of cocaine, posing a significant drug threat to the US.
In a separate statement, the state department said it would not certify Colombia's counter-narcotics efforts.
Petro denied the accusations, stating that he has been fighting drug trafficking for decades and has helped reduce cocaine consumption in the US.
Imposing sanctions on a head of state is rare, yet not unprecedented, with leaders from countries like Russia and North Korea previously facing similar actions.
