US President Joe Biden ordered renewed aid to Colombia to fight drug trafficking in the country, the world’s largest producer of cocaine.
“Aircraft that are reasonably suspected of being primarily engaged in illicit drug trafficking in the airspace” of Colombia “need to be banned because of the extraordinary threat they represent” to the national security of that country, the president said according to a statement released Tuesday by the White House.
“Colombia has appropriate procedures to protect against the loss of innocent life in the air and on the ground in connection with said prohibition, which includes effective means to identify and warn an aircraft before the use of force is directed against the aircraft. “, he adds in a memorandum addressed to the State and Defense departments.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken will publish this decision in the federal register and it will be submitted to Congress for approval.
After four decades of fighting drugs, Colombia is the world’s largest producer of cocaine and the United States its main market.
Thanks to the resources obtained with the drug, several armed organizations continue to operate in Colombian territory.
During his inaugural speech on Sunday, Colombian President Gustavo Petro called for “a new international convention that accepts that the war on drugs has failed.”
Drug trafficking worries the US government, where more than 100,000 people died from drug overdoses in 2021.
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