The issues that Petro and Biden will address in their first meeting

The President of the United States, Joe Biden, will receive for the first time in the White House to his Colombian counterpart, Gustavo Petro, to talk of migration and the fight against drugs at a time when the national president seeks the ‘patotal z’.

The meeting will be next Thursday, April 20, 2023.

(See: Balance of Colombia’s participation in meetings of the IMF and the World Bank).

Within the framework of a visit that begins this Sunday, April 16, the leaders will address issues of “mutual national interest“, Taking into account that “Colombia is a key US ally“, he claimed White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre in a statement in which he reported the meeting.

“I thank the President of the United States 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 also in the protection of the Amazon, climate change and rural developmentPetro said on his Twitter account.

Washington will be the last destination in the United States of a trip that will take Petro to NY on Monday the 17th, to attend the 22nd Session of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues at the UN headquarters, as San Francisco on Tuesday the 18th, specifically to Stanford University.

Petro will travel to the US capital on Tuesday and, the following day, will deliver a speech at the headquarters of the Organization of American States (OAS), which he has openly criticized on more than one occasion even asking for its reform.

(See: Why calculating the fiscal cost of reforms is a ‘tough nut to crack’).

He will also meet with politicians and businessmen, but the main course will be the meeting with Biden in the Oval Office of the White House.

According to the Bñamca House spokesperson, they have a lot to talk about: economic and security cooperation, fight against climate change and drug trafficking, migratory challenges, democratic values ​​and human and labor rights.

The visit is “an important milestone and a unique opportunity to reaffirm the strong partnership“, according to the Colombian Presidency.

And it is that the first left-wing government in the history of Colombia has a “new vision” that “modifies” the relationship without ceasing to be “true allies”, as he said in Washington, at the end of March, Colombian Foreign Minister Álvaro Leyva.

(See: Four Secret Document Leaks That Rocked America.)

Petro, who will turn 63 next Wednesday, April 19, came to power in August 2022 with ambitious reform projects, some of them are sensitive to the historic relationship that Washington maintained for decades with the traditional governments of Colombia.

The leftist president is a fierce critic of the “unsuccessful” drug war (backed by the United States) and proposes focus on consumption rather than production as well as stop the persecution of small growers.

In mid-March, the head of US diplomacy for Latin America and the Caribbean, Brian Nichols, considered “very difficult” for Petro’s anti-drug plan to succeed if it does not eradicate crops.

This change of approach in the fight against drugs is part of the “total peace” policy with which the president aspires put an end to more than six decades of violence in Colombia.

To do this, it seeks to open a dialogue table with the Central Staff (EMC), the largest faction of dissidents in the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) which departed from the historic 2016 peace agreement, when the bulk of the rebels laid down their arms.

(See: US dominance grows in global arms trade.)

He also began negotiations with the guerrillas of National Liberation Army (ELN), It emerged in 1964 and has maintained frustrated peace talks with five governments.

This Friday, days before his arrival, the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) included Wilver Villegas-Palomino, ‘high-ranking’ member of the ELN, on its list of the ten most wanted people for the crime of drug trafficking.

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The arrival of the leftist government to power also turned the relationship between Colombia and Venezuela.

Nicolas Maduro, whom Washington does not recognize as president for considering his re-election in 2018 fraudulent, is now an ally of Petro after four years of pressure from his predecessor, Iván Duque (2018-2022).

(See: Casa de Nariño confirms Petro’s meeting with Biden in the United States).

Petro reestablished relations with Maduroafter three years of diplomatic rupture, and sponsors a conference in Bogotá on April 25 in which fifteen countries, including the United States, will try to promote the resumption of political dialogue between the Maduro government and the Venezuelan opposition.

Petro and Maduro.

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Beyond the differences, the two countries agree on crucial issues such as the migration and the fight against climate change.

Colombia, which is home to more than 2.5 million Venezuelans, wants to hold a Latin American migration conference as soon as possible and another on the electrical interconnection from Patagonia to Alaska, to bring electricity generated with clean energy production methods to the north.

AFP