Colombia's first avowedly left-wing president, a former member of M-19, a guerrilla outfit. Elected in 2022 on a promise to overhaul pensions, the health-care system and labour laws, and to dramatically reduce inequality. He also vowed to establish "Total Peace" by negotiating with all armed groups. Mr Petro wants to "decolonise" his own country—an ambition that sits awkwardly with the grievances of the Raizal islanders of San Andrés, who consider Colombia itself a coloniser. In 2023 he appointed five Raizal islanders as Colombia's ambassadors to Caribbean nations.
Mr Petro's pugilistic approach has made it hard to win support in Congress, while the courts have held up some of his reforms. His chaotic governing style undermines the civil service: he appoints a new minister every 20 days on average, leaving bureaucrats demoralised and lacking direction. He often rants on X and has compared his critics to slave owners and Nazis. In April 2025 his former foreign minister accused him of taking drugs; Mr Petro denies the allegations and says he is being slandered.
He rails against Colombia's independent central bank, saying it seeks to slow economic growth "for purely political reasons" and suggesting it is trying to "defund the Colombian government". When the senate blocked his employment-rights bill, he threatened to bypass it by calling a referendum of questionable legality; cowed, the senate then passed it. He regularly clashes with the justice system, claiming a "soft coup" when courts do not rule in his favour. In February 2024, after clashing with the supreme court over the selection of a new attorney-general, he called protesters onto the streets; they surrounded the court, trapping the judges for hours.
His foreign minister has no diplomatic experience. His confrontational rhetoric has drawn criticism. In June 2025, days before a senator was shot while campaigning, Mr Petro had labelled the senator "the grandson of a president who ordered the torture of 10,000 Colombians". He subsequently agreed to temper his tongue.
His approach to negotiations with armed groups has strained relations with Ecuador's president, Daniel Noboa.
On June 20th 2025 lawmakers approved a modified version of his labour reform, after senators had previously rejected it twice. The reform increases the overtime premium on Sundays and holidays to 100% of a worker's salary (up from 75%) and forces firms to contribute more to gig workers' pensions, health care and insurance. The think-tank Fedesarrollo reckons it will raise the cost of hiring by up to 15%.
A pension-reform bill is in limbo: the constitutional court sent it back to Congress in June 2025 after opposition lawmakers said the government had rammed it through without adequate debate. A health-care reform bill that would nationalise the 27 private insurers administering Colombia's system was passed in a watered-down version by the lower house in March 2025 but is expected to be rejected by the Senate.
Mr Petro's approval ratings stand at around a third. He is ineligible for re-election and has no clear heir. On June 20th 2025 he announced he would include a vote on whether to call a constituent assembly to rewrite the 1991 constitution in next year's general elections, following the model of Venezuela's Hugo Chávez. Critics fear he is trying to enshrine in the charter what he has been unable to pass in Congress.
In October 2025 Donald Trump called Petro an "illegal drug leader" after the American navy struck a boat near Colombia and deported two survivors to Colombia and Ecuador. His administration had previously accused Colombia of coddling "narco-terrorist groups".
His adviser Iván Cepeda has been a key figure in the "total peace" plan of talking to all illegal armed groups, including drug-traffickers. The policy has failed: guerrilla groups are growing again, drug gangs are more powerful, and kidnappings have increased. Militias used ceasefires to regroup, rearm and train with drones; their ranks have swelled and they have seized territory. The government has shifted towards a harder-line security policy, with military operations to kill prominent commanders.
On October 26th 2025, in primaries for Mr Petro's Historic Pact coalition, Cepeda won 65% of the vote, beating Diana Carolina Corcho, a former health minister. Colombia's constitution bars Mr Petro from seeking re-election. Mr Cepeda faces a further primary in March 2026 against other left and centre parties.
After American forces captured Nicolás Maduro on January 3rd 2026, Mr Petro compared the raid to the Nazi bombing of Guernica during the Spanish civil war, warned that the United States had "pissed blood on the sacred sovereignty" of Latin America and called on the Venezuelan people to "take to the streets". Trump shot back that Mr Petro better "watch his ass" and on January 4th called him "a sick man who likes making cocaine and selling it to the United States". On January 7th Mr Petro called Trump "to explain the situation of drugs and other disagreements"; Trump "appreciated his call and tone." The risk remained that American air strikes on gang-run drug laboratories inside Colombia could increase the chance that a leftist wins the presidential election in May 2026.
Cocaine production in Colombia hit a record 3,001 tonnes in 2024, according to the UNODC, 13% more than in the previous year, and more than double the figure for 2021, the year before Mr Petro took office. The government claims to have intercepted 2,840 tonnes between Mr Petro's inauguration and the end of 2025, 61% more than the previous government. Mr Petro disputes the UNODC's methodology and has blocked publication of its latest report. In January 2026 he threatened to sideline the UNODC, saying Colombia's police would take over monitoring instead—a move that risks damaging the international co-operation on security and anti-narcotics that the country needs. Trump was expected to try to strong-arm Mr Petro into renewing the UNODC contract and ending his peace negotiations with drug-trafficking groups when the two met at the White House on February 3rd.
"I'd love to go out with you, but I'm attending the opening of my garage door."