Colombian President Gustavo Petro forcefully rejected allegations that he has ties to drug traffickers after reports emerged that the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has designated him a “priority target” amid a federal probe in New York examining his alleged connections to the drug trade.
Petro responded Friday on X with a lengthy public statement, saying there is “not a single investigation” in Colombia linking him to traffickers and insisting he has never spoken with anyone involved in the drug trade. He said he spent a decade of his life exposing links between powerful drug traffickers and politicians, a campaign he said placed his life at risk and forced his family into exile.
“As you well know, in Colombia there isn’t a single investigation into my relationship with drug traffickers, for one simple reason: never in my life have I spoken with a drug trafficker,” Petro wrote, adding that he devoted years to denouncing what he described as an era of paramilitary influence over local and national governments.
Petro also denied that drug money played any role in his presidential campaign, saying he has consistently instructed campaign managers to reject donations from traffickers or bankers. He said extensive investigations into his campaign finances would not find “even a single peso” linked to drug trafficking, calling the allegations a political attack fueled by Colombia’s far right.
“So those probes in the U.S. will serve me to dismantle the accusations from the Colombian far right that one is indeed articulated all the way to the teeth with the drug traffickers of Colombia,” Petro wrote.
The response followed reporting that DEA records and interviews with confidential informants have linked Petro to multiple drug‑related investigations dating back to 2022, allegations he has repeatedly denied. U.S. prosecutors have not publicly accused Petro of any crime, and officials say the inquiry remains in its early stages.
Petro’s remarks come amid heightened tensions with Washington following earlier sanctions and sharp rhetoric from former President Donald Trump, even as the two leaders have recently signaled a thaw in relations.
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This article includes reporting by the Associated Press.
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