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The president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, is in the United States ahead of a meeting with his counterpart Joe Biden, scheduled for next Thursday, April 20. Bogotá is one of Washington’s oldest and strongest allies in Latin America, but Colombia’s left-leaning leader is trying to push for a change in bilateral relations. The proposal for a new drug policy and relations with Venezuela are at the forefront of the agenda.
An unprecedented meeting that seeks to promote eventual changes in the long-standing relations between Colombia and the United States.
The Colombian president, Gustavo Petro, arrived last Sunday, April 16, in New York, his first stop in the middle of a tour that also includes San Francisco and Washington.
But without a doubt, the crucial moment on the political agenda will be the meeting at the White House with the US president, Joe Biden, scheduled for next Thursday, April 20.
“I am grateful to President Biden for his invitation (…) It is a key moment to strengthen the relationship and mutual cooperation between both countries, not only in the fight against drug trafficking, but in the protection of the Amazon, in climate change and in rural development”, remarked the president of the South American country on April 14.
I thank the president @POTUS your invitation. It is a key moment to strengthen the relationship and mutual cooperation between both countries, not only in the fight against drug trafficking but also in the protection of the Amazon, climate change and rural development. pic.twitter.com/TXMePfZRt9
— Gustavo Petro (@petrogustavo) April 14, 2023
Petro, a former member of an extinct guerrilla group and the first left-wing Colombian head of state, arrives in the midst of an effort to convince Washington of the need for a change of approach in the fight against drug trafficking, in which he calls for shared responsibility and urges the cessation of traditional measures such as the extinction of illicit crops with glyphosate. As he made clear in the remembered speech that he offered before the UN General Assembly, in September 2022, a month after reaching the Executive.
The Latin American leader, involved in an ambition for new winds, also intends to promote a possible solution to the crisis in Venezuela. His president, Nicolás Maduro, considered “illegitimate” by the US, is the one with whom, once installed in the Casa de Nariño, Petro quickly resumed bilateral relations, diminished during the governments of his right-wing predecessors.
“Peace is about a change in US policy.”
These were some of the words that Petro uttered just before leaving for the United States, a clear confirmation of his message to the US government.
After more than six decades of internal armed conflict and a peace process in 2016 with the FARC, the oldest guerrilla in the world, remnants remain and other criminal movements are added, attracted by the illicit business of drug trafficking.
Petro, whose government recently confirmed the opening of negotiations with several of these illegal armed groups, which are fighting for control of drug trafficking, insists on the shared responsibility between producer countries and the largest drug consumers.
The change for Petro is also going through alliances in economic, environmental and agrarian matters.
“The war in Colombia is driven by illegal economies and illegal economies have emerged for several years due to the rickety nature of the Colombian productive apparatus both in the countryside and in the city, the lack of agriculture and industry, the lack of instruments to make progress in specific regions and the alliance between Colombia and the United States in this matter could solve problems that afflict the two countries,” said the Colombian head of state.
Petro highlights his conviction to negotiate the surrender of drug traffickers, abandon fumigations with glyphosate and stop persecuting coca growers, all in the midst of a war against drugs that has left thousands dead in Latin America, especially in Colombia. the main producer of cocaine in the world.
But convincing the first power to change the focus of that policy has great challenges. In the imaginary of the United States, with a firm hand against the scourge in the producing nations, the possibilities of change cause resistance.
In the Colombian field, the challenges are not minor, in the midst of upcoming rounds of dialogue, but clearly without guarantees in a country with a history of non-compliance, both within the Government and criminal groups around agreed agreements.
Local press reports indicate that Petro would have shortened the duration of his official visit to the United States, to attend a meeting with the Venezuelan opposition in the coming days, but the meeting with Biden remains.
Venezuela, protagonist in the Petro-Biden meeting
Petro also brings the government of his neighboring country to the center of the talks with Biden.
For months, Bogotá has promoted bridges between the Maduro and Biden Administrations, so the meeting is expected to frame those efforts.
Although the dialogues between Chavismo and the opposition are at a standstill, deep down both Biden and Petro agree on the commitment to presidential elections in Venezuela in which the ruling party respects the electoral norms and its political adversaries have guarantees. A step that could lead to a solution to years of political crisis.
Despite the disagreements between Washington and Caracas, marked by the claims of both parties-such as the failure to release Venezuelan assets abroad or the lack of a real will of the Maduro government to respect democracy and the separation of powers – Members of the international community also have hopes of a way out of the crisis, with the intervention of the Colombian president.
With Reuters and local media
