Colombia halts arms purchases from US over drug combat delisting row
2 Min Read
Colombia suspends US arms imports after Trump decertifies the country’s anti-drug efforts, claiming record cocaine production under President Gustavo Petro.
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Colombia's President Gustavo Petro speaks during a meeting of leaders of the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization in Bogota, Colombia, Aug. 22, 2025 (AP)
Colombia halted arms purchases from the United States, its biggest military partner, on Tuesday, after Washington decertified the South American country as an anti-drugs ally under the pretext of failing to halt cocaine trafficking.
On Monday, President Donald Trump denounced Colombia's leftist president, Gustavo Petro, for failing to curb cocaine production, claiming that instead, Petro presided over its rise to what he called "all-time records," a failure which he stated made him decide to officially designate the country as having demonstrably failed to meet its drug control obligations.
Reacting to the news, Colombian Interior Minister Armando Benedetti told Blu Radio that "from this moment on...weapons will not be purchased from the United States."
Trump's decertification of Colombia, the first for the longtime ally in three decades, was viewed as a mainly symbolic gesture.
The decertification was nonetheless seen as a stinging rebuke of Petro's anti-drug efforts, which prompted Colombia's president to hit back by saying that the Colombian military would become independent from "handouts" from the United States.
Petro hits back
During a televised cabinet meeting, Petro said Colombia was being punished despite sacrificing dozens of policemen, soldiers, and regular citizens to stem the flow of narcotics to the United States.
“What we have been doing is not really relevant to the Colombian people,” the Colombian president stressed, adding, “It’s to stop North American society from smearing its noses” in cocaine.
US officials cited a surge in coca cultivation and cocaine production as the reason for the measure, while critics argue it unfairly targets Bogota despite its decades of collaboration with Washington.
