Colombia halts arms purchases from US
Tuesday, September 16th 2025 – 20:48 UTC
No more handouts or gifts for the United States, Petro promised
Colombian President Gustavo Petro has halted all future arms purchases from the United States in response to Washington’s decertification of his country as a counter-narcotics ally.
(See also: Three South American countries singled out by US for not fighting drug trafficking)
The army is better off buying its weapons or making them with our own resources because, otherwise, it will not be an army of national sovereignty, Petro insisted. Quite simply, the US is interfering in Colombia’s internal politics; it wants a puppet president, Petro also posted on X.
The Army and its Armed Forces will no longer depend on weapons from the United States; no more handouts or gifts, Petro promised. I am not going to kneel and allow farmers to be beaten. We are not sepoy.
The decision by the Trump administration to remove Colombia from the list of nations fighting drug trafficking was met with strong criticism from Petro, who argued that the US was meddling in his country’s internal politics and that the US should be decertified for its own failure to curb drug consumption.
Between 2000 and 2018, the US gave Colombia more than US$10 billion for military, social, and drug crop eradication purposes. While the US decision includes an exemption from the harshest sanctions, it is seen as a significant blow to the long-standing military alliance between the two countries. Petro stated that the Colombian military would instead buy or produce weapons using its own resources.
Colombian Interior Minister Armando Benedetti confirmed that the country would seek new partners for arms acquisition, an uphill task given Petro’s resolution last year to stop buying from Israel. (See also: Petro: Colombia no longer buying guns from “genocidal” Israel)
From this moment on, no weapons will be purchased from the United States, Benedetti said in a radio interview, citing the recent acquisition of a fleet of fighter jets from Sweden. The United States, as a capitalist country, has to understand that there are also market issues, he said while noting it was all a political issue targeting Petro, who is at odds with the White House since even before he came to power.
This government has captured 165,000 people, seized 1,200 tons of cocaine, voluntarily eradicated 53,000 hectares, and destroyed more than 10,000 laboratories, the minister also explained.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has reproached Petro for his deficient leadership in the fight against drug trafficking. Now they have a president who, in addition to being erratic, has not been a good partner in the fight against the cartels, he stressed.
