Colombian President Gustavo Petro is determined to prove to Donald Trump and his opponents in Colombia that he is not a drug trafficker. The idea that he is a criminal leader may seem far-fetched, but Washington insists on describing him as such and sanctioning him: at the end of October, the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) included him in a list of people linked to illegal activities, which led to the paralysis of his bank accounts and the ban on fuel for his plane in Cape Verde. Petro, therefore, chose to order that his expenses be made public. It doesn’t matter how personal they are: they range from exorbitant payments on luxury brands like Gucci to visiting a club. striptease in Lisbon.
“Given President Trump’s discourtesy in placing me and my family on the Clinton List (the colloquial name for OFAC classifications) without anyone being a drug trafficker or having dealings with drug traffickers, I have decided that my entire long but frugal financial life will be published,” he wrote Monday to the Treasury Department, which is responsible for preventing and detecting money laundering and other illegal schemes. Petro regretted that the text only includes his banking movements between 2023 and 2025: “I would like it to start from further back, so that there are no doubts about my income. You can investigate whatever you want and compare with my tax returns, which I have also made public.”
The report is dated June this year and indicates that the analysis was carried out due to “effects on the personal accounts of the President of the Republic”, without specifying what they were at that time. It should be noted that Petro has 12 bank accounts, but records significant movements in only two of them. The first mentioned is that of the bank Scotiabank, with which he pays the mortgage on his house in Chía. The other is located at BBVA and is the one with the “major banking operations”, with a more detailed breakdown of income, ATM withdrawals, bank transfers and payments in shops and hotels.
Income to the main account was approximately 1.31 billion pesos (about $350,000) between January 2023 and June of this year. The majority corresponds to the president’s salary, which the Ministry of Finance transfers each month in amounts ranging from 14 million pesos (about $3,700) in July 2023 to 48.6 million (about $13,000) in May 2024. These transfers amount to 1,124 million pesos (about $300,000). The rest are other payments, canceled transactions and unspecified transfers.
Over the same period, expenses on BBVA’s account amounted to just over 1,400 million pesos (about $380,000). They include withdrawals from correspondents and bank branches totaling 497 million pesos (about $130,000) and were made by three people: Jesusita Quiros, former secretary to the president; Laura Sarabia, former director of the Administrative Department of the Presidency (DAPRE); and Angie Rodríguez, current director of DAPRE. Withdrawals are also made at ATMs, especially in the north of Bogotá, for 259 million pesos (about 70,000 dollars). There are also recurring transfers to Ingrid Plata, friend of Verónica Alcocer, wife of the president and former partner. The first lady, whose expenses in Sweden have been reported by the press in recent days, received five million pesos (about $1,300) in June.
The more personal data is found in a section dedicated to card purchases. They reveal that the president often buys clothes from luxury brands during his international trips: payments range from 5.2 million (about $1,400) at a Gucci store in Portugal in May 2023, to 2.1 million pesos (about $560) at the Italian Casa dei Tessuti store in May this year. In early 2023, he also spent 209,000 pesos (about $50) at the Menage Strip Club, a brothel in Lisbon that promotes itself on its website: “Our most attractive girls are ready to give you an unforgettable experience, fulfilling all your dreams and desires.”
The president also visited iconic cultural locations, such as the Ateneo Grand Splendid bookstore in Buenos Aires, and witnessed the acrobatics of artists from the Circus of the Sun. Likewise, it is affiliated with Colmédica, a prepaid health insurance company that offers greater concessions for accessing medical services. There are no significant expenses during the two trips in which his critics accused him, without evidence, of having “lost himself” in drug use (France, May 2023) or in encounters with criminals (Ecuador, June 2025).
Petro has used several arguments to defend himself against Trump in recent weeks. The main one is that he has been denouncing Colombian drug traffickers for decades and that his government has seized thousands of tons of cocaine. Another is that Trump’s attacks are due to distorted information coming from his inner circle: he claims that Republican Senator Bernie Moreno seeks revenge for some complaints made against his brothers decades ago. Now let’s add this report which shows, in an exercise in transparency, that his life is not as “frugal” as he claimed in a message on X on Monday, but also that he has no exorbitant income beyond his salary or any suspicious expenses. His charges do not incriminate him as “a drug trafficking leader” or “a criminal” (to a delinquentin English),” as Trump defines it.
However, the UIAF also warns that it cannot rule out criminal activity. “It is important to note that this information only represents the existence of the transactions; it is not possible to conclude whether they are financially linked to criminal acts or their intentions,” the report reads. Petro, however, does not give up his determination to prove that he is not a drug leader and has requested financial reports covering the years preceding his presidency.
