Bogota Colombia
U. S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met Monday with Colombian President Gustavo Petro to discuss tactics for lasting relations between their countries.
They discussed the Petro-backed peace process with armed teams and the US-led war on drugs, which has been heavily criticized by the president.
Blinken told a news convention in the capital, Bogota, that the United States “strongly” supports Petro’s comprehensive fight against drug trafficking.
Colombia’s first leftist president is an ardent critic of the fight against drugs, which he says has been an absolute failure.
According to the latest White House report, in 2021 there were 234,000 hectares of coca leaf planted in Colombia, making it one of the cocaine manufacturers.
While the South American country has faced pressure from the United States to eliminate drug crops, Petro has supported legalizing drugs, adding cocaine.
Petro also said it was a “mistake” for the United States to include Cuba on its list of state sponsors of terrorism after Colombia negotiated peace with the FARC guerrilla organization in Havana, which ended with a peace deal signed in 2016.
Blinken and Petro addressed abnormal migration and climate change.
“Petro has demonstrated its leadership on the climate crisis,” Blinken said.
After Colombia, Blinken will travel to Chile and Peru, where he will participate in a ministerial summit and discuss regional issues such as migration and the crisis in Venezuela.
The 3 countries he visits, which have been strong allies of the United States, are now led by leftist presidents with whom Washington seeks to build solid alliances.
“We’ve never had stronger relationships with the Global South,” Assistant Secretary Brian Nichols, the State Department’s most sensible diplomat for the Western Hemisphere, told reporters Friday.
“We don’t judge countries by their position on the political spectrum, but by their commitment to democracy, the rule of law and human rights,” he added.
Blinken’s Latin American tour begins a day after the first round of Brazil’s presidential election, which he won through leftist former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva opposed to far-right populist President Jair Bolsonaro but will now head to a runoff due to the failure of either. candidate to obtain 50% of the votes.