In Colombia's largest Pacific port of Buenaventura, police on November 20, 2025, thwarted an attempt to smuggle 14 tonnes of cocaine (valued at $390 million). This marks the Colombian police's largest cocaine seizure in a decade and is seen as a sign of President Gustavo Petro's intensified campaign to intercept drugs.
Since taking office last year, United States President Donald Trump has repeatedly accused Petro of doing "nothing" to stop the flow of cocaine, leading to Colombia's decertification as an ally in the "war on drugs". However, in the final months of his term, Petro is on a campaign to prove his policy works, partly by pointing to record cocaine seizures. At a cabinet meeting in January, he stated, "We can say it proudly: We are the government that has seized the most cocaine in the history of the world."
Although Petro took office in 2022 with a call to end the US-led "war on drugs", he has since adopted a modified version, placing greater focus on human rights. He has cut back on forced coca eradication (the leafy crop used to produce cocaine), arguing it unfairly targets poor farmers. His administration is negotiating with drug-trafficking groups in hopes of reducing violence, and has petitioned the United Nations to decriminalise coca, citing its traditional uses among Indigenous peoples in the Andes region.
Yet, while trying to shift away from prohibitionist tactics, Petro has kept interdiction (the process of intercepting and seizing illicit drugs before they reach their destination) as a pillar of his strategy. Now, Colombia is seizing more cocaine than ever. In 2025 alone, authorities confiscated a historic 985 tonnes of cocaine, almost four times the weight of the Statue of Liberty.
Still, experts caution that even with record seizures, Petro has yet to quell tensions with the US. Ana María Rueda, a drug policy expert at the Foundation Ideas for Peace (a Colombian research institute), said, "I think Petro's reasoning was: 'I'll seize large quantities so the United States won't pressure me over not eradicating crops.' But it didn't work out for him." Some, like Michael Weintraub, director of the Center for Drug and Safety Studies (CESED) at Bogota's Andes University, believe the size of seizures alone does not equal success.
Petro is set to leave office in August, but his record of combatting drug trafficking in Colombia comes with high stakes. He is Colombia's first left-wing president, and his party, the Historic Pact, must contend with his legacy as the May 31 presidential election approaches. Many experts are dubious of the increase in cocaine seizures under Petro, believing it is actually a result of higher coca production in Colombia, which has reached record levels in recent years. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime reported that 253,000 hectares (over 625,000 acres) of coca were planted in 2023, a 10-percent jump from the previous year.
Ultimately, a lot of cocaine still manages to evade authorities, according to Adam Isacson, director of the Washington Office on Latin America's defence oversight programme. Interdiction is a strategy led for decades by Colombian Police and Navy, involving interception of drug shipments along rivers, roads, and maritime routes. The idea is that interdiction raises business costs for traffickers, driving up cocaine prices and reducing consumption. However, Isacson explained that the problem with interdiction is that criminal organisations expect losses, treating seizures as another expense in a wildly lucrative business.
Another concern is that Petro's interdiction strategy has not achieved its goal of defusing US pressure, according to Rueda. The strategy gained prominence in 2000 with the launch of Plan Colombia, a US-backed initiative to fight drug trafficking and armed groups. At that time, interdiction became a key metric to gauge Colombia's success in the US-led "war on drugs", said Rueda. Under the Petro administration, it has taken on renewed importance, partly to signal to the international community that Colombia is fulfilling its obligations to combat the drug trade.
Petro has pledged to strengthen interdiction by improving radar technology, increasing patrols, enhancing intelligence, and fostering greater international cooperation. But his efforts have not necessarily lessened US pressure. In the last month alone, media reports revealed that federal prosecutors in the US may be investigating Petro's actions related to narcotics trafficking. And while Trump and Petro have grown closer recently, the US president has threatened to intervene in Colombia if it fails to take more aggressive action against traffickers. Petro, however, has highlighted his interdiction efforts to refute Trump's claims that he has allowed cocaine to flow unchecked.
Experts have pointed out that Petro has bent to US demands in other areas. Although he pledged not to target coca farmers, in December he announced that security forces would deploy drones to spray crops with glyphosate (a herbicide). This plan—forcibly eradicating coca crops by air—faced strong local opposition due to health and environmental concerns. Rueda said this move, which has yet to be implemented, signalled that Petro, like many presidents before him, had yielded to US pressure.
Source: www.aljazeera.com