The Writers Project

By JORDAN BOLLAG

CLAREMONT, Calif. – Relations between the United States and its historically most reliable ally in Latin America have encountered turbulence as Colombia’s first leftist president raises concerns in Washington over his positions on foreign relations, trade and his country’s main export: cocaine.

President Gustavo Petro seeks to end the so-called “war on drugs” in favor of decriminalization and nonextradition policies, supports friendly relations with U.S. adversaries Cuba and Venezuela, and opposes his country’s trade agreement with the U.S.

Colombia has long been a faithful U.S. ally and the core of U.S. influence in Latin America. Since the 1999 launch of Plan Colombia, Bogota has received $13 billion in U.S. military aid, far more than any other country in the Americas, to fight the drug war, yet Colombia remains by far the world’s largest cocaine producer and the U.S. its largest customer.

The U.S.-Colombia relationship, while strained compared to the past, remains cordial; U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke at a news conference with Petro earlier this month of the two countries’ “extensive common ground.” But despite being “largely in sync” on a “holistic approach” to drug policy, clear differences remain on the issue of extraditing Colombian drug criminals to the United States. Declaring the war on drugs a failure, the former guerilla with the Marxist M-19 group has proposed that “any member of the drug trafficking chain who decides to subject themselves to justice, giving the assurance of nonrecurrence, would not be extradited,” while Blinken reiterated that “the extradition relationship has benefited both the United States and Colombia.”

Petro has criticized another centerpiece of the U.S.-Colombian drug war: mass coca eradication through aerial spraying of chemical herbicides, which has caused health problems and environmental degradation. “To destroy the coca plant, they spray poison … that runs through the waters, they arrest its growers and imprison them. For destroying or possessing the coca leaf, 1 million Latin Americans are killed and 2 million Afro-Americans are imprisoned in North America,” Petro said in a U.N. speech last month. “Do not touch with your poisons the beauty of my homeland, help us without hypocrisy to save the Amazon Rainforest to save the life of humanity on the planet.” While he would still eradicate such “industrial crops” by less harmful means, Petro seeks to decriminalize small-scale coca farming but disincentivize it through land redistribution and crop-substitution programs.

Moreover, Petro has broken with American policy regarding Cuba and Venezuela. In the conference with Blinken, Petro derided the “injustice” of the U.S. designating Cuba a sponsor of state terrorism, citing Cuba’s hosting of the 2016 Colombian peace talks with Venezuela. Last month, Petro normalized relations with Venezuela and reopened its border with the U.S.-sanctioned country.

Petro also opposes his country’s free trade agreement with the U.S., which he views as impoverishing Colombian farmers. The Biden administration has signaled openness to renegotiating the agreement.

While both governments downplay their differences to keep relations friendly, the rupture in such a historically strong alliance is significant. Petro’s “historic” presidency “breaks with a long legacy of conservative governments that largely supported U.S. policy and promoted neoliberalism,” Pomona professor of Latin American History Miguel Tinker Salas said in an email.

“Though concerned, the U.S. has not formulated a clear plan regarding its relations with Colombia,” Tinker-Salas said. “Secretary Blinken recently embarked on a tour of Latin America which included newly elected left governments, in particular Colombia. The tour sought to assuage differences, but like the Summit of the Americas held in Los Angeles, (but) besides a photo, it accomplished little.”

(By Jordan Bollag, Oct. 21, 2022)