The president’s trip this Sunday Gustavo Petro, to the United States and his first bilateral meeting with Joe Biden paint an idyllic scenario of close relations between two countries that have notorious disagreements but that know they need each other.
(Reasons why ‘The Economist’ criticized Petro’s ‘total peace’).
“The United States needs Colombia and Colombia needs the United States”, summarizes the professor of the Faculty of International, Political and Urban Studies of the Universidad del Rosario Mauricio Jaramillo.
The arrival of Petro has shaped the “ideological harmony” of both governments, which have a “environmental sensitivity” common sense and willingness to rethink policies such as drug policies, as well “affinities in terms of human rights and even in terms of peace”.
“Abused” Relationships
Former Colombian President Iván Duque boasted that Colombia was the first partner of the United States in the region, and he was the first Latin American leader to meet with Biden after the departure of Donald Trump, although it took him more than a year and several visits to the country. to be received at the White House.
Trump himself, for whom Uribismo, Duque’s political current, had advocated in the campaign, “disparagement” the former president, according to Jaramillo, because he considered him lacking leadership capacity.
“Duke by action or omission mistreated the relationship with the United States”, Jaramillo alleges, while Petro has been “smartest” since since he took office last August he has sought a rapprochement that next Thursday will take place with the meeting with Biden in the Oval Office.
(The issues that Petro and Biden will address in their first meeting).
However, the White House opened its doors to the Chilean Gabriel Boric on June 9, 2022, barely three months after taking office, and Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva did not need more than a month and a half to make the meeting effective. after returning to the Brazilian Presidency.
That is why some consider that the Petro meeting is late and that it has not been so easy to achieve, despite the hard work of the Colombian ambassador in Washington, Luis Gilberto Murillo, and the apparent good tone between the two governments.
The drug controversy
In American offices there are those who are beginning to tire of the discourse “punisher” of Petro against the US and his criticism of the handling of drug policy in Latin America, according to analysts consulted.
“The war on drugs has failed. The fight against the climate crisis has failed.” Petro announced during his first speech at the last UN General Assembly and pointed to a place: “The war on drugs has lasted 40 years, if we do not correct the course and it continues for another 40 years, the United States will see people die of overdose 2,800,000 young people for fentanyl”.
(Petro travels to the US: is a meeting with Joe Biden in the offing?).
According to the professor at the University of Rosario, Petro is the first sitting president who dared to say so and repeated it to the US Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken, when he came to Colombia and reconsidered the extradition policy, for example, something that is not very popular in the US.
“Petro has obligations and the United States knows it, it knows that they elected him for a change,” says Jaramillo, who believes that in this case Colombia is tightening the rope because it knows that the United States has a “strong pressure to change focus” of drugs, even if I don’t always agree with everything that is raised.
“The United States knows that the rope can be tightened but it cannot be broken and in Casa de Nariño (Colombian presidential headquarters) they think the same”says a source familiar with relationships.
In this symbiosis, Petro, for example, will arrive in Washington looking for “more support”, especially funds for certain reforms, which can be seen in his recent statements that there is no money to implement the FARC peace agreement. And the US, in addition to seeing Colombia as an aid for the reception of Venezuelans -it is the country with the largest number- to reduce what they see as a “wave”it also needs it to relaunch its own relations with Venezuela.
After verifying that the sanctions against the Government of Nicolás Maduro have not served much, Jaramillo points out, “The United States is interested in a democratic transition.”
(Casa de Nariño confirms Petro’s meeting with Biden in the United States).
And there “Petro wants to be a double bridge”He gets along well with both the government and the opposition, but he also wants to position himself as the regional leader he wants to be to connect Venezuela and the United States.
However, and despite his announcement of a “international conference for Venezuelan dialogue” In Colombia, which will take place on April 25 and for the moment only foreign ministers are expected, it is not expected that the bilateral declaration after the meeting with Biden will transcend Venezuela too much.
In any case, although that good harmony between the Colombian and US governments is what shines, Close sources assure that on Thursday in the Oval Office the conversation can be tense and not so jovial.
EFE
