Latin America 'Under the Microscope': Colombian President Is Latest Target of U.S. Sanctions

Financial Services attorneys Andres Fernandez and Gabriel Caballero were interviewed for a Law.com International article about U.S. government sanctions on Colombian President Gustavo Petro. The U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) imposed the sanctions on Petro, members of his family and his Minister for the Interior in late October based on allegations that he enabled the illicit drug trade. Mr. Caballero explained how the measures, which block the U.S. property and property interests of the sanctioned individuals, force companies and financial institutions to assess current operations or risk penalties for noncompliance.

"For U.S. companies that have exposure to Colombia, this raises some complex issues, especially if they do any business with the government or state-owned entities in Colombia," he said.

The sanctions also generally prohibit transactions with Petro and his affiliates, and Mr. Fernandez outlined how Holland & Knight's Financial Services Regulatory Team aids clients in these situations.

"We act like an offensive coordinator, but let the banks run the plays. They do the due diligence, they look at their accounts, they determine what their exposure is and then they report back to us once they've done this assessment," he said. "We help develop a strategy and a game plan so that they can ring fence — make sure any activity occurring with an entity subject to sanctions, that it doesn't get processed in the United States."

Mr. Caballero and Mr. Fernandez also co-authored a Holland & Knight alert and a Latinvex article on the sanctions.

READ: Latin America 'Under the Microscope': Colombian President Is Latest Target of U.S. Sanctions