US President Donald Trump backtracked on promises to cut aid to Colombia and impose tariffs, and will sanction top government officials instead, according to US Senator Bernie Moreno.

In a flurry of interviews, Moreno said that he convinced Trump not to punish Colombia, but President Gustavo Petro, for his resistance against the bombing of vessels in the Caribbean.

The problem isn’t with the country, but with its president. A new person will soon take over. It will probably be the most important election in Colombia’s history… There won’t be tariffs for Colombia, that’s not the plan. The plan is to focus on the problem, which is Petro, and that will be done in next year’s election.

Bernie Moreno

The republican senator said that Petro and close associates would be placed on the so-called ???Kingpin List???, which bars US companies from doing business with alleged drug traffickers and their front companies.

???What we have in Colombia is a president that got elected thanks to the help of drug cartels,??? said Moreno.

The Ohio Senator claimed that the president was ???elected with the help of drug cartels,??? and that they will accelerate Treasury Department’s ???investigations??? into Petro.

Moreno interviewed former Assistant Secretary for Terrorist Financing in the Treasury Department, Marshall Billingslea, who told the Senate that “the Venezuelans” have been financing the “socialist plague” in Latin America and Petro’s 2022 election campaign.

Neither Billingslea nor Moreno provided evidence for the claims they made.

???It???s Corrupt Venezuelan money that underwrote the Petro presidential campaign. They funneled money into Mexico. They funneled money into Brazil. Once we have restored democracy in Venezuela, all of that subversion money that has been underwriting the socialist campaigns around the region dries up.???

Marshall Billingslea

The senator asserted that the Trump administration is working to “liberate” the people of Colombia and Venezuela. And when Colombia elects a new president “who truly represents the greatness of Colombia,” they will “join forces to liberate Venezuela.”

Petro became a target of the US government and Republican senators after he vowed to take legal action against US officials for breaching international law and assassinating a Colombian fisherman in the Caribbean Sea.

Moreno and his family have a personal beef with the president because Petro wrote a book about the plunder of the “Banco del Pacifico” in Ecuador, linking Moreno’s brother, Luis Alberto to financial crimes.

In response to Moreno’s allegations, the president accused the senator’s other brother, Roberto, of laundering money with the now-defunct Bogota Cartel.

The Republican senator is a close ally of former Colombian presidents Andres Pastrana and Alvaro Uribe, a former associate of the Medellin cartel.