Copyright colombiareports
Colombia will break ties with its US fuel provider after President Gustavo Petro was denied service in Cape Verde. The company allegedly denied service while Petro was flying to Saudi Arabia, citing fears that the president’s inclusion on the so-called “Kingpin List” could lead to “severe penalties,” according to newspaper El Pais. The presidential airplane was able to refuel in Spain after an intervention by Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez In a post on social media platform X, Petro said that the Colombian Air Force (FAC) would break ties with the company It was the American company with which the FAC contracted all its gasoline outside the country, something that should never have happened… Thank goodness the American company is responsible for the humiliation, because the contract with it will be terminated. Gustavo Petro The incident followed unsubstantiated US government claims that the president is an “illegal drug leader,” and was “elected with the help of drug cartels.” The list of the Office of Foreign Assets Control is meant for “significant foreign narcotics traffickers and their organizations,” and bars US companies from doing business with them. Tensions between Petro and the government of US President Donald Trump have deteriorated since the beginning of September over US airstrikes on fishing boats in the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean. Trump alleged that these boats belonged to “narcoterrorists,” but Petro claimed that the US government was assassinating civilians and vowed to take legal action. Tensions have been rising to the point that Republican Senator Lindsey Graham claimed that Trump is planning “potential military operations against Venezuela and Colombia.” The Colombian government insisted that the “War on Drugs” has failed, while the Trump administration was trying to militarize its global counternarcotics efforts.
