Colombian president has trouble refueling his plane after U.S. sanctions

Colombian President Gustavo Petro had trouble refueling his plane on a trip to the Middle East after being sanctioned by the United States, his government said Thursday.

Interior Minister Armando Benedetti said that the presidential plane stopped in Madrid to refuel on the way to Saudi Arabia but that officials at Barajas airport, Spain’s biggest, refused to fill it up.

After negotiations with Spain’s left-wing government, the plane landed at a military base to refuel.

President Donald Trump’s administration has accused Petro of enabling drug cartels and placed him on the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctions list.

“Since President Gustavo Petro came to power, cocaine production in Colombia has exploded to the highest rate in decades, flooding the United States and poisoning Americans,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said last week when announcing the sanctions. 

Petro, his wife Veronica Alcocer, eldest son Nicolas, and Benedetti are banned from traveling to the United States and any U.S. assets they have are frozen.

U.S. companies or companies with U.S. capital are also banned from doing business with them.

Writing on X, Petro thanked the “kingdom of Spain” for helping him reach Riyadh at the start of a three-country tour that will also take him to Qatar and Egypt.

Benedetti said that the aviation refueling company at Barajas was afraid of breaching U.S. sanctions on Petro.

“The companies that sell fuel or provide cleaning services or the boarding stairs (at airports) are almost always American,” Benedetti said.

“They refused to provide the (refueling) service because of the OFAC (list),” he said.

Petro is also struggling to access his salary after being hit with the sanctions, his lawyer told AFP on Thursday.

“They’ve had their credit cards and bank accounts frozen,” said Daniel Kovalik, Petro’s lawyer. “Even getting paid as public officials is now difficult.”

Kovalik said believes Petro is being punished for opposing U.S. foreign policy.

“I think that (Trump) is trying to attack anyone who’s standing up to U.S. foreign policy aims,” Kovalik said. “And he’s being punished. It’s a message to all leaders: you get aligned, (or) you’re gonna be punished.”

The sanctions imposed on Petro on Oct. 24 followed months of friction between Mr. Trump and Petro over U.S. migrant deportations and strikes on suspected drug boats off the coast of South America.

In an exclusive conversation with CBS News earlier this month, Petro claimed some of those killed by the U.S. strikes on alleged drug boats have been innocent civilians, and he reiterated his accusation that the attacks violate international law. The White House has denied that innocent civilians were killed in the boat strikes.

Petro, a former left-wing guerrilla, has vehemently denied any involvement in drug trafficking and argued that the cocaine trade is being fueled chiefly by demand in the United States and Europe.

Last month, the U.S. State Department announced it was revoking Petro’s visa after he participated in a New York protest where he called on American soldiers to disobey Mr. Trump’s orders.

The department said on social media that Petro “stood on a NYC street and urged U.S. soldiers to disobey orders and incite violence. We will revoke Petro’s visa due to his reckless and incendiary actions.”