As every September for 20 years, the United States is about to announce a decision of great importance for the country: whether or not to certify its performance in the fight against drugs throughout the last fiscal year. In this case, it is due to the period between August 2022 and August of this year, which coincides with the first year of the government of President Gustavo Petro..
(Keep reading: Exclusive: The United States would certify Colombia’s performance in the fight against drugs)
According to various sources consulted by this newspaper, the balance, as has happened in the last two decades, would once again be favourable. The announcement is scheduled for next week and it is up to the president on duty. In this case, Democrat Joe Biden.
This Thursday, during a hearing before Congress, Todd Robinson, US Undersecretary for International Drug Trafficking Affairs, confirmed that Colombia would be on its way to being certified.
(You can read: Exclusive: The US assures that anti-drug cooperation with the Petro government is changing)
“I am not going to anticipate the decision of the president (Joe Biden), but I can say that we have had and still have a good relationship with the Government of Colombia”Robinson said.
The official also pointed out that although cooperation with Colombia has changed since the arrival of Gustavo Petro, cooperation continues to be strong. “It has changed, because they want to go in another direction. But we continue to work with them in many areas, such as interdiction, regional security, and things like environmental crimes,” Robinson said.
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Precisely, on this occasion, there is some anxiety in the Colombian Government as the date approaches, especially due to the new approach towards the fight against drugs that President Gustavo Petro has been implementing and in which, among other measures, is the to suspend the eradication of illicit crops in the case of small growers.
In practice, this would have translated into an increase in cultivated hectares, one of the criteria that the US takes into account when making its annual determination.
I am not going to anticipate the decision of the president (Joe Biden), but I can say that we have had and still have a good relationship with the Government of Colombia.
But, according to President Petro, eradication only punishes the weakest link in the chain and has failed as a strategy because, in his opinion, crops have not disappeared despite bilateral efforts in these two decades.
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Instead, the Colombian president favors the interdiction of drugs and programs that offer alternatives to peasants so that they can abandon coca crops.
However, that position has earned him a barrage of criticism, especially among Republicans.
And while the Biden administration has repeatedly insisted that an eradication component is necessary, it would be giving Petro’s plan a hold for now to see if it yields results. That, among other strategic and security reasons, would be the reason for not decertifying the country.
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In fact, high authorities of the White House said this Thursday before Congress that the US anti-narcotics strategy in Colombia is “evolving” from one focused on attacking production to another that also includes regional security, justice, development, money laundering of assets and interdiction.
Robinson made it clear in his speech that fentanyl trafficking is the top priority for the US, but that should not stop paying attention to other challenges such as Colombia.
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The White House would also take into account that the Colombian president inherited a country with a record number of coca crops and does not want to punish a government that has been in power for barely a year and is also one of the main allies on issues keys such as migration and climate change.
This year, in addition, there is another component that has made the atmosphere rare. Two months ago, EL TIEMPO revealed that the US decided to suspend the satellite monitoring program for illicit crops for the first time in more than 25 years. In other words, it does not have, as in the past, an x-ray of the progress of illicit crops in Colombia.
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In congressional hearings and public comment, Biden administration officials have defended the decision, arguing that the US has the monitoring system the UN uses to measure the extent of crops, and that while the program was halted They have plans to reactivate it. Robinson even said Thursday that the program would be resumed “next year.”
Even so, Republicans in Congress have questioned the explanations, saying they do not trust the UN measurements and that the suspension seems more like a favor to Gustavo Petro.
This added to the fact that, although everyone agrees that the UN data will show the great increase in illicit crops in Colombia, the United Nations figures will most likely be released after Biden makes his decision.
Resources for Colombia
The bilateral relationship also had another moment during the hearing this Thursday when Democratic Senator Ben Cardin expressed his concern about the decision of the Lower House to exclude resources for the country in 2024.
“Colombia has great challenges, such as drugs, the implementation of peace, migration from Venezuela and that is why we approved more than 400 million dollars, but in the Chamber they have approved zero. Colombia is a democracy, but it is not predictable and the United States should not go about micromanaging its politics,” Cardin said, alluding to the reasons that Republicans have invoked to punish the government of Gustavo Petro.
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Brian Nichols, Assistant Secretary of State for the Western Hemisphere and another witness at the hearing, replied that Maintaining aid to the country was “vital” and that the administration was in dialogue with the Chamber to demonstrate how these resources not only serve Colombia, but also the US, “because we all benefit from a stable and democratic Colombia.”.
Thus, it remains to be seen the language that the US president will use to describe the situation in Colombia when he issues the certification that is accompanied by a brief synopsis on the state of the fight against drugs in the most relevant countries.
SERGIO GOMEZ MASERI
EL TIEMPO correspondent
Washington
On Twitter @sergom68
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