The U.S. Treasury’s unprecedented decision to sanction Colombian President Gustavo Petro and his inner circle has sparked speculation that recent testimony by Venezuela’s former spy chief, Hugo “El Pollo” Carvajal, may have cemented the move.
Carvajal, once a powerful general in Hugo Chávez’s intelligence services, pleaded guilty in June 2025 to drug trafficking and narco-terrorism charges before the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. U.S. prosecutors accused the 65-year-old of helping orchestrate a cocaine-smuggling network within the Venezuelan armed forces known as the Cartel de los Soles (“Cartel of the Suns”), a name derived from the gold suns worn on the epaulettes of senior military officers.
According to the court filing, Carvajal and other senior officials “used cocaine as a weapon — flooding New York and other American cities with poison” and partnered with Colombia’s FARC guerrilla to provide weapons in exchange for protection of cocaine routes into the United States.
The former intelligence chief, captured in Madrid after years on the run, later admitted that he had facilitated shipments and accepted millions of dollars in payments from Colombian and Venezuelan traffickers. His plea marked a dramatic fall for a man once considered one of the most feared operatives in Latin America’s intelligence community.
While the details of Carvajal’s plea agreement remain sealed, the spymaster’s cooperation with U.S. prosecutors could have provided critical evidence connecting senior Venezuelan and Colombian officials to illicit financial movements.
Carvajal has long claimed to possess documents and intelligence implicating Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and other top figures in the financing of left-wing political movements across Latin America and Europe. In a 2021 declaration to Spanish authorities — later echoed in U.S. filings — Carvajal alleged that funds from the Maduro regime were secretly funneled to political campaigns including those of Néstor Kirchner in Argentina, Evo Morales in Bolivia, Lula da Silva in Brazil, Fernando Lugo in Paraguay, Ollanta Humala in Peru, Manuel Zelaya in Honduras, and Gustavo Petro in Colombia, as well as to the European parties Podemos in Spain and the Five Star Movement in Italy.
Colombian Senator María Fernanda Cabal has publicly urged the Attorney General’s Office and the congressional Commission of Accusations to request Carvajal’s sworn testimony from U.S. authorities. “The United States holds the declarations of Hugo ‘El Pollo’ Carvajal, who affirms that the Venezuelan regime financed Gustavo Petro’s campaign,” Cabal wrote on social media. “Petro must respond before justice sooner rather than later.”
Adding to the controversy, Marshall Billingslea, former U.S. Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorist Financing, testified before the U.S. Senate that “dirty and corrupt Venezuelan money” had entered Colombia’s 2022 presidential race. Billingslea stated that the funds were part of a broader strategy by Caracas to support ideologically aligned candidates across the region.
Those revelations gained new significance when the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), known as the Clinton List, imposed sanctions on Petro, First Lady Verónica Alcocer, their son Nicolás Petro, and Interior Minister Armando Benedetti on October 25.
The Treasury Department accuses Petro of presiding over a “disastrous and ineffective” drug policy that allowed cartels to flourish and pushed cocaine production to record highs. The move effectively freezes any U.S.-based assets of the four officials and prohibits American citizens and entities from doing business with them.
In response, Colombia’s Banking Association (Asobancaria) issued a formal communiqué on October 24 reaffirming the sector’s adherence to international compliance rules.
“The Colombian financial system has been a global reference in the fight against money laundering and terrorist financing for more than three decades,” the statement read. “In light of the recent U.S. government decision to include the President of the Republic, members of his family, and the Interior Minister on the OFAC list, the sector reiterates its commitment to upholding international standards. At the same time, it will continue to act in accordance with the rights of financial consumers, local regulations, and Constitutional Court jurisprudence.”
Asobancaria also stressed that Colombia’s banks will maintain close coordination with U.S. authorities and correspondent institutions to “preserve the stability and integrity of the financial system and the trust of citizens.”
The designations followed months of inter-agency coordination between the Treasury Department, the Drug Enforcement Administration, and the Department of Justice — suggesting that OFAC acted on intelligence corroborated by ongoing criminal investigations. “The water-tight Clinton List is based on hard evidence, and removal from it is almost impossible,” stated one U.S. financial expert.
According to a report in El Tiempo, the U.S. Treasury could include as many as 50 additional Colombian officials and associates on the sanctions list in the coming weeks, including former ministers, members of the current cabinet, and business figures linked to Alcocer.
Colombia’s first left-wing government, already at odds with Washington over its stance on Venezuela and criticism of U.S. anti-drug policy, now faces its deepest diplomatic rift in decades. The Colombian leader has rejected U.S. accusations, describing them as politically motivated.
But in Washington, the move is seen as part of a broader campaign targeting the Maduro–Petro axis, which U.S. intelligence agencies believe has facilitated the laundering of Venezuelan oil and narcotics profits through Colombian and Caribbean financial systems.
The timing of the sanctions also coincides with increased U.S. military activity in the region. The USS Gerald R. Ford, the largest aircraft carrier in the world, has been deployed to the southern Caribbean to reinforce counter-narcotics and regional security operations.
The U.S. naval buildup — coupled with Treasury’s sweeping sanctions — has fueled speculation that the Trump administration may be preparing for a new phase of pressure on Nicolás Maduro’s regime. Several U.S. senators, including Ohio Republican Bernie Moreno and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, have claimed that Maduro will be removed before the end of this year. A new Venezuelan government will be led by Edmundo González and Nobel Peace Prize laureate María Corina Machado.
The combination of financial sanctions, regional military presence, and the consolidation of a recognized Venezuelan interim government suggest that Maduro’s days are numbered. Should the Venezuelan leader be ousted — potentially with the backing of rogue factions within the Bolivarian Armed Forces — the U.S. arsenal could remain in place to secure key installations until a transition government takes power.
In that scenario, Washington’s focus would likely shift toward Colombia, where Petro’s alleged ties to Miraflores are now under intense scrutiny, and could lead to US authorities to issue an “indictment” against the country’s first leftist president.
