US places sanctions on Colombian President
Newshour
BBC
4.2 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 24 October 2025
⏱️ 48 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The United States has imposed sanctions on the Colombian President Gustavo Petro, accusing him of refusing to stop the flow of cocaine to the U.S. President Trump has accused Bogota of being complicit in the illicit drug trade. Also in the programme, President Zelensky visits the UK with leaders of other countries supporting Ukraine; and a Children’s Booker Prize will be awarded next year alongside the main prestigious book award. Photo: Colombian President Gustavo Petro speaks during a press conference with international media in Bogota, Colombia Credit: Photo by Carlos Ortega/EPA/Shutterstock
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts. |
| 0:08.9 | Hello and welcome to News Hour from the BBC World Service. |
| 0:12.0 | Coming to you live from London, I'm James Kamara Sami. |
| 0:15.1 | The United States is stepping up what it's calling its counter-terrorism and counter-narcotics operation in the waters of Latin America. |
| 0:22.7 | Today, the Defence Secretary Pete Hexeth said that six male narco-terrorists had been killed in the latest US strike |
| 0:29.7 | on an alleged drugboat in the Caribbean, the 10th known attack of its kind since September. |
| 0:35.1 | And the Pentagon has announced it is deploying the aircraft |
| 0:39.0 | carrier Gerald Ford to the region. As a warship named after a former Republican president |
| 0:45.3 | prepares to set sail, the current president, Donald Trump, is already on the warpath against |
| 0:50.8 | regional leaders. He is accused of facilitating the drugs trade or even being |
| 0:55.3 | involved in it. The Venezuelan leader Nicholas Maduro has been in Mr. Trump's site, but he's |
| 1:00.6 | not alone. Venezuela's neighbour Colombia has traditionally been a key ally in the fight against |
| 1:05.8 | illicit drug trade, but its left-wing leader, Gustavo Petro, has fallen out with his |
| 1:10.7 | American counterpart. |
| 1:12.4 | And in the past hour, it's been announced that the United States is imposing sanctions on |
| 1:17.0 | President Petro. Well, this is what the U.S. leader said about him two days ago. |
| 1:22.1 | Well, he's a thug and bad guy. He's a guy that is making a lot of drugs. We've just, as of today, stopped all |
| 1:29.3 | payments going to Colombia. Now, he's a thug, and he's a bad guy, and he's hurt his country very |
| 1:35.2 | badly. They're doing very poorly, Colombia. They make cocaine. They have cocaine factories. They |
| 1:40.8 | grow all sorts of drugs, bad drugs coming into the United States, goes generally through Mexico. |
| 1:47.8 | And he better watch it or will take very serious action against him and his country. |
| 1:53.6 | And they have. Well, last month, President Petro had his visa revoked by the U.S. State Department after he took part in a pro-Palestine rally on the streets of New York |
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