BOGOTÁ (apro).- Colombian President Gustavo Petro this Friday repudiated his inclusion in the so-called “Clinton list” due to unproven accusations by the administration of his American colleague Donald Trump of having alleged links to drug trafficking.
“Not a step back and never on your knees,” Petro noted in his
“Fighting drug trafficking for decades and effectively brings me this measure from the government of society that we help so much to stop their cocaine consumption,” said the president and announced that he will legally defend himself against this sanction through the American lawyer Dany Kovalik.
Petro also considered that this sanction is the fulfillment of a threat from the far-right Colombian-American Republican Senator Bernie Moreno, who had anticipated that the leftist president would be included by the Trump administration on the “Clinton list.”
This list is issued by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the Treasury Department and the people or companies that appear on it are blocked from making financial transactions in the United States and doing business with that country.
The Treasury Department also included Petro’s wife, Verónica Alcocer, his son Nicolás Petro, and Colombian Interior Minister Armando Benedetti on that list.
Political analyst Gabriel Cifuentes considered it “alarming” that the Trump administration has taken this step against Petro “without any proof or evidence” to support the serious accusations against the president and his family members.
He said that, rather, it seems “an act of retaliation” amid the escalation of accusations between Petro and Trump. The latter has called his Colombian colleague a “drug trafficking leader” and a “thug.”
The Treasury Department stated, without any evidence, that it included Petro on the “Clinton list” for his role “in the illicit global drug trade.”
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