After 30 Years, U.S. Slams Colombia for Failing to Help in the Drug War

The Trump administration has added Colombia to a list of nations failing to cooperate in the drug war for the first time in nearly 30 years — a stinging rebuke to a traditional US ally that reflects a recent surge in cocaine production and fraying ties with the country’s leftist president, Joshua Goodman and Astrid Suarez reported for the Associated Press (AP).

The last time the US added Colombia to the list — through a process known as decertification — was in 1997. (Photo: National Police of Colombia)

Even as it determined that Colombia had failed to comply with its international counternarcotics obligations, the Trump administration issued a waiver of sanctions that would have triggered major aid cuts, citing vital US national interests.

Still, the move marks a major step against one of Washington’s staunchest allies in Latin America — one that analysts said could hurt Colombia’s economy and further hamper efforts to restore security in the countryside, Manuel Rueda also reported for AP.

President Gustavo Petro, who has said on several occasions that whisky kills more people than cocaine, lamented Trump’s decision during a televised cabinet meeting.

He argued Colombia was penalized despite sacrificing the lives of “dozens of policemen, soldiers and regular citizens, trying to stop cocaine” from reaching the US.

“What we have been doing is not really relevant to the Colombian people,” Petro said of the nation’s antidrug efforts. “It’s to stop North American society from smearing its noses” in cocaine.

The last time the US added Colombia to the list — through a process known as decertification — was in 1997, when the country’s cartels had poisoned much of the nation’s institutions through threats of violence and money.