October 21, 2025. Tensions between the United States and Colombia are through the roof: two days earlier, Donald Trump accused Gustavo Petro of being a “drug trafficking leader.” All of Colombia fears a harsh tariff retaliation, a blow that would affect thousands of businessmen and an entire economy that depends on exports to its northern partner. But Bernie Moreno, a Republican senator from Ohio of Colombian origin, rules it out. That Tuesday, in an interview with Fox News, he warned: the country should not fear a trade war because the sanctions will be directed at Petro and his closest circle. He repeats it again on Wednesday in the Colombian media: Petro, “the root of the problem,” will be included in the OFAC list.
Two days later, on Friday, October 24, the promise is fulfilled. Petro, two of his relatives and the Minister of the Interior, Armando Benedetti, are included by the US Treasury Department on the so-called Clinton list, which also includes terrorists, gangsters and drug traffickers. Moreno wins Petro’s attention: “Indeed, the threat was fulfilled,” says the Colombian president. The Republican responds: “FAFO”, an acronym of the expression in English Fuck Around and Find Out (Get screwed and you’ll see).
Moreno and other Republican congressmen, such as Carlos Giménez (Florida representative) have become the visible faces of a campaign against Petro in Washington in recent weeks. Their statements have gained great space in the headlines of the national media: they have commented on everything from decertification to military attacks against alleged drug boats in the Caribbean and the Pacific, including the court case against former president Álvaro Uribe Vélez. An academic source familiar with relations between Washington and Bogotá affirms that the Republicans have a great affinity and a direct line with several right-wing Colombian politicians, including former president Uribe. The purpose is obvious: for the left to lose in the presidential elections next semester.
Sergio Guzmán, director of the consulting firm Colombia Risk, explains that Moreno, Giménez and María Elvira Salazar (also representative for Florida) “are very influential people within the Republican Party and its extreme right wing,” in which much of Trumpism is recognized. “President Trump gives relevance to each congressman for the issues he deals with. In addition, he wants to keep them happy because they are officials from very important states like Florida and Ohio,” he points out in an exchange of messages. For this reason, the statements of these congressmen have had responses in the White House.
María Claudia Lacouture, president of the Colombian American Chamber (AmCham), who has had multiple contacts with the Republican sector of the US Congress in recent months, indicates: “It is not random. Mutual work has been done since January (the first time Trump threatened Colombia with tariffs) to bring the message to Washington of the need for a good relationship. There they have determined that there is much more country than Government.” And he points out in a telephone conversation: “Bernie Moreno has been crucial in this process and has adopted the banner of defending Colombians.”
The congressman from Ohio accused Petro last week, in a hearing of the US Senate committee on international narcotics control, of confronting “Hezbollah activity in Colombia” and for showing sympathy with Hamas. Both groups, Lebanese and Palestinian, respectively, have been designated as terrorist organizations by Washington. In another coup of opinion, Moreno sent a letter this Thursday to the State Department, headed by Marco Rubio, to designate three Colombian armed groups as terrorists: the General Staff of Blocks and Fronts (EMBF), the Gaitanista Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (or Clan del Golfo) and the Conquering Self-Defense Forces of the Sierra Nevada (or Los Pachencas). There are three organizations with which the Petro Government is negotiating, in different instances, peace.
Petro is no stranger to Moreno’s influence in high circles in Washington. “Trump has been encouraged by US Senator Bernie Moreno to clash with us. That is not for Trump. (…) Moreno tries to throw dirty water at us for everything, he tells (Trump) that I am a drug trafficker,” said the president in a televised Council of Ministers. According to him, the fierce opposition arises from the North American’s links with the Colombian right. Petro accuses Roberto Moreno, Bernie’s brother and president of the Amarilo construction company, of being linked to an alleged case of money laundering that would have benefited former conservative president Andrés Pastrana, of whom another brother, Luis Alberto, was a minister.
The president and the senator met in August, during a visit by Moreno to Colombia, to discuss security cooperation and the bilateral trade relationship. “It went well,” the senator said then about the meeting. “We don’t have to agree on everything.” It was not enough to smooth out the rough edges.
Closeness to Uribismo
The good graces of the Colombian right with the Republicans is also evident with Representative Carlos Giménez, one of the most vocal US congressmen in favor of Uribism. There are many publications in X in which alludes to the former president. “I am happy about the news, I believe that the conviction was unjust, it has been proven with this decision, which has rejected that conviction and I congratulate former President Uribe on his victory in the courts and I hope to see him as soon as possible,” he said when he was acquitted in the second instance of the case against him for witness manipulation, which he described as “a political persecution”, the same expression that Secretary Rubio has used.
In his most recent publications about Colombia, Giménez questioned the election of Iván Cepeda as the left’s presidential candidate. “I doubt that Colombians want to live in a country like the murderous dictatorship in Cuba, which has forced the people to live in total misery, without rights and without freedoms. May God protect Colombia from communist cancer!”, he stated.
For analyst Guzmán, Giménez “is very involved in domestic politics and has an explicit interest in ensuring that there is no one left on the left in Colombia.” The country, according to the expert, is central to the interests of its electorate. In his district, Florida’s 28th, which includes Miami-Dade County, seven out of every 10 residents are of Hispanic origin. In an interview he gave to the magazine WeekGiménez mocked Petro for saying that he fought against drug trafficking. “Seizing 2,700 tons of cocaine makes us the Government that has seized the most cocaine in the history of the world. Those who don’t see the accounts are cretins,” the president responded.
During the most recent clash between Petro and Trump, many opposition politicians showed their support for the American, a figure that many analysts believe will play a role in the 2026 elections, as he already did in Ecuador, Canada or Argentina. Uribista candidate María Fernanda Cabal assured that “time proved her right” after having supported Trump since his first presidency. Meanwhile, the ultra pre-candidate Abelardo de la Espriella even stated that if Trump asked for it, he would extradite Petro (although to date no crime has been proven). He Trump effect In the next elections it is still uncertain: more than 60% of Colombians have an unfavorable image of the American, according to the pollster Invamer. For now, it is his allies in Congress who are leading the effort from Washington to return the right to power in the country.
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