Colombian Interior Minister Armando Benedetti reacted sharply on Friday after being included in the latest US sanctions list issued by the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), AFP reported.
"Because I defended the dignity of my country and said that President Gustavo Petro is not a drug trafficker, they put me on the OFAC list without me ever attacking them", Benedetti wrote in X.
"This proves that every empire is unjust and that its fight against drugs is an armed farce... For the US, nonviolent speech is tantamount to being a drug trafficker... Gringos, go home", he said. Hours earlier, OFAC sanctions targeted President Gustavo Petro, members of his family and Benedetti himself, as part of Washington's crackdown on suspected drug trafficking networks.
The US also said it had deployed the USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier strike group to the Caribbean Sea to crack down on drug trafficking.