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Colombia Halts US Arms Purchases Over Downgrading In Drug Fight

On Monday, President Donald Trump denounced his leftist Colombian counterpart Gustavo Petro for not only failing to curb cocaine production, but overseeing its surge to "all-time records."

By Nosakhale Akhimien
Updated September 16, 2025
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US President Donald Trump speaking to reporters after signing executive orders in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC on September 5, 2025, and Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro during the opening ceremony of the COP16 summit in Cali, Colombia on October 20, 2024. Colombia could lose the certification of its anti-drug campaign from the US this Monday, confirming the diplomatic stalemate between the two governments amid a major US military deployment in the Caribbean. (Photo by JOAQUIN SARMIENTO and Mandel NGAN / AFP)

 

Colombia on Tuesday halted arms purchases from the United States after Washington decertified the South American country as an ally in the fight against drugs.

Colombian Interior Minister Armando Benedetti told Blu Radio that “from this moment on…weapons will not be purchased from the United States.”

On Monday, President Donald Trump denounced his leftist Colombian counterpart Gustavo Petro for not only failing to curb cocaine production but also overseeing its surge to “all-time records.”

“Colombia has been a great partner historically. Unfortunately, they have a president now that, in addition to being erratic, has not been a very good partner when it comes to taking on the drug cartels,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio, a harsh critic of leftist leaders in Latin America, said on a visit to Israel.

(FILES) A motorbike rides past a mix coffee and coca leaf plantation in Argelia, Cauca department, Colombia on May 6, 2025. The United States has decertified Colombia as an ally in the fight against drugs, Colombian President Gustavo Petro said on September 15, 2025, confirming a decision that could cost the country hundreds of millions of dollars in US military support. (Photo by JOAQUIN SARMIENTO / AFP)

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A defiant Petro, who has crossed swords with Trump on the deportation of migrants, hit back, saying that the Colombian military would end its dependence on “handouts” from the United States.

“The army is better off buying its weapons or making them with our own resources, because otherwise, it won’t be an army of national sovereignty,” he told a cabinet meeting.

 

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