Avianca Publishes Letter Sent to Petro Explaining Why it Did Not Take Him to Mexico
The Colombian airline Avianca made public a letter that it sent on August 24 to former president Gustavo Petro in which it explains why it canceled some tickets that the former leader had bought to make the Bogota-Mexico City-Bogota route, and returned the money to him. It was the first trip outside Colombia that Petro was making after leaving power on August 7.
Petro’s flight to Mexico was going to take place on August 30, but he was notified that the airline could not take him. So, at the last minute, the former president had to look for another option to be able to leave the country, until Aeromexico agreed to transport him, despite potential retaliation from the United States Government.
Avianca reminds Petro of his status
The episode was recounted by Petro himself in a conversation with the also former president of Ecuador Rafael Correa, who remains in Belgium a fugitive from his country’s justice system. Petro said that Avianca decided not to transport him because his name appears on the list of the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the US Department of the Treasury, also known as the Clinton List.
“They suspended you. They returned the ticket. They did not allow you to fly on Avianca so as not to be sanctioned in the United States. Those are the consequences of those unilateral measures by the United States,” Correa said. “They did not want to,” replied Petro, who was included in the Clinton List on October 24, 2025 and since then has suffered consequences.
Avianca decided to make public the letter it wrote to Petro, reminding him that it is a Colombian airline that operates in the United States, permanently makes transactions in the US financial system, including the sale of tickets, and has assets and affiliated companies in that country.
“Taking those ties into account, Avianca is subject to the economic sanctions regulations administered by OFAC of the United States Department of the Treasury,” the airline explains in its letter.
It recalls that those regulations prohibit persons and entities that, like Avianca, have economic and financial ties with the United States, from making transactions, including the provision of services, in favor of any person whose property and interests are blocked by appearing on the Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List (SDN List).
Decision in strict compliance with Avianca rules
Avianca says that after a regulatory compliance review within its regular procedures, it identified that there were two reservations in which Petro’s name appeared.
“Within the framework of those same verifications, we have detected that your name is included in the SDN List administered by OFAC. Consequently, and for the sole purpose of complying with this regulation applicable to us, we find ourselves obliged to proceed with the cancellation of your tickets […] and refund the entire value paid for your tickets to the original payment method,” says the letter.
After advising that, since the tickets were paid for in cash, Petro should provide the bank account details of whoever made the reservation to issue the refund, Avianca reiterates that the cancellation of the tickets obeys “strictly and exclusively” the fulfillment of international regulatory obligations that bind Avianca due to the nature and geographical location of its operations.
In the final part of the letter, Avianca tells Petro that the airline’s relationship with the country and its leaders “transcends any situation” and the measure it took “is of a purely legal nature, alien to any consideration or criterion of Avianca.”
“We sincerely regret the inconvenience that this situation may cause you and reiterate that this decision is adopted in strict compliance with the rules governing our operations,” the airline concludes.