Following the UK announcement it would not cooperate with the US military’s ‘illegal’ actions targeting alleged drug boats off Venezuela, Colombian President Gustavo Petro is the latest to announced the suspension of intelligence sharing with the United States.
This development is less of a surprise, however, given Colombia’s relations with Washington have been severely strained since nearly the start of the Pentagon’s Caribbean adventurism which began in September.
Petro made the announcement on X on Tuesday, vowing that intel-sharing would be blocked so long as these US operations continue.
“The fight against drugs must be subordinated to the human rights of the Caribbean people,” Petro wrote, also following UN officials blasting the actions as tantamount to extrajudicial killings.
He confirmed the immediate end of “communications and other agreements with U.S. security agencies” – a relationship which has long focused on the ‘war on drugs’ in Latin America as well as counterterrorism.
Already, amid a public back-and-forth spat, the Trump administration imposed sanctions on Petro, his family, and multiple cabinet members.
Like with Maduro in Caracas, the White House has accused Petro, his family and close officials of having ties to drug cartels – something which Bogota has vehemently denied.
The NY Times has noted that a rise in illegal drugs out of the country has been a trend which began before Petro took office, though the cocaine trade has continued to worsen under his leadership.
“The cultivation of coca, the base product in cocaine, has soared since Mr. Petro took office in 2022. It also soared under his predecessor, Iván Duque, a conservative and close ally of Washington Republicans,” the publication writes. The NY Times reviews further:
Mr. Petro, a leftist, is one of few leaders in Latin America who have been vocal in their criticism of Mr. Trump’s decision to bomb boats carrying people his administration says are drug traffickers. The bombings have killed dozens of people, and Mr. Petro has said that Colombians have been among them and has accused the United States of committing murder.
Mr. Trump has responded by calling Mr. Petro “an illegal drug leader” and said that he would cut off aid to Colombia. About $377 million was designated to Colombia in the 2024 fiscal year, according to the Congressional Research Service. About a third of that money is meant for law enforcement and narcotics control.
But when it comes to the many decades-long so-called ‘war on drugs’ – there’s plenty of blame to go around. The CIA has at times even participated in it at times, to raise funds for the Nicaragua Contras in the 1980s, for example.
On Tuesday Britain cited that it does not want to be complicit in ongoing US military strikes against alleged drug-trafficking boats, and this could lead to more US allies doing the same as the Pentagon build-up off Venezuela continues.
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