Avianca cancels Gustavo Petro’s international tickets after US sanctions listing

Avianca canceled the international tickets of former Colombian President Gustavo Petro after the US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control included him on its sanctions list.

The airline told Petro it would return all the money paid for the tickets. Because the purchase was made in cash, it asked him to provide bank account details for the refund. The process must go through the travel agency in Ecuador that originally sold the international tickets.

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For the clarity of Colombian citizens, the OFAC law is an administrative sanction imposed only on people in the United States.

Petro criticized the decision and argued that OFAC sanctions are administrative measures directed at people or entities under US jurisdiction. He said the law did not require Avianca to prevent him from flying because, in his view, the airline is not a US company and is instead associated with the United Kingdom.

“For the clarity of Colombian citizens, the OFAC law is an administrative sanction imposed only on people in the United States,” Petro said on social media. He accused Avianca of acting arbitrarily and said the issue should also be debated in the British Parliament.

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Avianca committed an arbitrary act.