The United States designates Colombia how not to cooperate in the war on drugs for the first time in almost 30 years

The Trump administration added Colombia on Monday to a list of nations that do not cooperate in the war on drugs for the first time in almost 30 years, a sharp rebuke to a traditional ally of the United States that reflects a recent increase in cocaine production and gets rid between the White House and the country’s leftist president.

Although he determined that Colombia had not fulfilled its international obligations in anterarcotics, the Trump administration issued a resignation to the sanctions that would have triggered large aid cuts, citing vital national interests of the United States.

However, it is an important step against one of the strongest allies in the United States in Latin America, and could further hinder efforts to restore security in the field, according to Adam Isacson, a security researcher at the Washington office in Latin America.

The Colombian president, Gustavo Petro, said he regretted the decision, that he overlooked decades of bloodshed by Colombian and civil security forces, all in the name of a war on drugs led by the United States.

“Everything we do has nothing to do with the Colombian people,” Petro said during a televised speech on Monday night. “It is to prevent American society from staining its noses to work, work and work, because this medicine is a stimulant.”

The United States added Colombia to the list, through a process known as downtown, in 1997, when the country’s posters, through threats of violence and money, had poisoned much of the nation’s institutions.

“It is a forceful tool and a great irritant in bilateral relations that goes far beyond drug problems and makes cooperation much more difficult in any amount of areas,” Isacson said. “That’s why it is rarely used.”

The president at that time, Ernesto Samper, faced credible accusations of receiving illicit campaign contributions from the now disappeared Cali Cartel, and an plane that was ready to use for a trip to New York to attend the session of the UN General Assembly met 4 kilograms of heroin.

A remarkable change began once Samper left office. The successive US administrations, both Republican and Democrats, sent billions in foreign assistance to Colombia to eradicate illegal coca crops, strengthen their armed forces in the fight against drug -fed rebels and provide economic alternatives to poor farmers who are on the lowest steps of the cocaine industry.

This cooperation began to crumble after the suspension a decade of air eradication of coca fields with glyphosate. It followed a ruling from the Colombian Superior Court that determined that the program funded by the United States was potentially detrimental to the environment and farmers.

A 2016 Peace Agreement with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, the largest rebel group in the country known as FARC, also committed Colombia to punitive policies back to the US spring of the Orange of the agent during the Vietnam War in favor of state construction, rural development and voluntary substitution of crops.

Since then, cocaine production has shot. The amount of land dedicated to coca cultivation, the basic ingredient of cocaine, has almost tripled in the last decade to a record of 253,000 hectares in 2023, according to the latest available report of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. That is almost triple the size of New York City.

Together with production, drug seizures have also triggered 654 metric tons so far this year. Colombia took a record of 884 metric tons last year.

But unlike the previous governments, the manual eradication of coca crops under Petro’s leadership has slowed down, just 5,048 hectares this year, much less than the 68,000 hectares uprooted in the last year of the term of its conservative predecessor and well below the objective of the government of 30,000 hectares.

Petro, a former rebel, has also angered the high US officials by denying US extradition requests, as well as criticizing the repression of immigration of the Trump administration and their efforts to combat drug trafficking in neighboring Venezuela.

“Under my administration, Colombia does not collaborate in murders,” Petro said on September 5 after the United States Army carried out a Mortal strike in a small Venezuelan container In the Caribbean that the Trump administration said it was transporting cocaine to the United States

“Colombia’s failure to fulfill its drug control obligations during the past year is based solely on its political leadership,” Trump said in a presidential memorandum submitted to Congress. “I will consider changing this designation if the Colombian government takes more aggressive measures to eradicate coca and reduce cocaine production and traffic, as well as keep those who produce, the traffic and beneficial of the production of the responsibility of cocaine, even through a better cooperation with the United States to bring to the leaders of Colombian criminal organizations to justice.”

According to the Law of the United States, the President must identify annually to countries that have not fulfilled their obligations under the international agreements against -agreed during the previous 12 months.

In addition to Colombia, the Trump administration listed four other countries: Afghanistan, Bolivia, Myanmar and Venezuela, as among the 23 main drug traffic or drug production countries that have not fulfilled their international obligations. With the exception of Afghanistan, the White House determined that American assistance to those countries was vital for national interests and, therefore, would be saved from any potential sanction.

Venezuela’s networksignation as a country that has not been able to fight properly in the smuggling narcotics of neighbor Colombia is in the context of an important US military accumulation in the Caribbean that has already led Two mortal strikes In small Venezuelan ships that the Trump administration said they transported cocaine to the United States

“In Venezuela, the criminal regime of the accused drug trafficker Nicolás Maduro leads one of the largest cocaine traffic networks in the world, and the United States will continue to seek to bring Maduro and other members of his regime of complication to justice for his crimes,” said Trump’s designation. “We will also go to foreign terrorist organizations as a Aragua Train and the purge of our country.”

• Venezuela
• Drug traffic
• Colombia
• Trump administration