The US eliminated the South American country from the list of countries that fight drug trafficking for the first time in three decades.
Donald Trump’s government has rewarded Colombia’s cooperation in the fight against drugs for the first time in almost three decades. However, he granted an exemption not to completely affect the assistance he usually gives to a country traditionally considered as an ally of the United States in Latin America.
The descertification, announced Monday by the State Department, becomes a reprimand of the US government to the boom in coca leaf crops and deceleration in the eradication of illicit crops during the leftist administration of President Gustavo Petro, critic of the immigration policy and the recent military incursion against the coast of Venezuela.
The United States described Colombia for the last time in 1997 in the government of Ernesto Samper when the cartels in the country had infiltrated the highest spheres of power. Since 2000, successive American governments have allocated billions of dollars in aid to Colombia. But cooperation began to crumble a decade ago, when an air fumigation program of coca fields with the glyphosate herbicide was suspended.
Annual US evaluations
Table of Contents
According to US law, the President must identify annually, before September 15, to countries that have breached their international obligations during the previous 12 months.
The Trump administration responsible for the “breach” on the obligations of drug control to political leadership in Colombia. In addition, he indicated that he will consider changing the designation in the future if the government adopts more aggressive measures to eradicate illicit crops and reduce production and traffic.
Reproaches descertification
Petro reproached the descertification by ensuring that his country has put “dozens of dead” to prevent cocaine from reaching the United States. “Because everything we really does has nothing to do with the Colombian people … It is to prevent American society from making no more noses,” he said in a televised council of ministers.
He also announced that Colombian military forces will stop depending on the US weapons. He gave alternative to buy weapons or manufacture it through the state company. He did not detail how long it would take the transition or if they will return the weapons that were already donated by the United States, such as some helicopters used by the police. “No more alms or gifts,” said Petro.
At the same time from Colombia, Afghanistan, Bolivia, Burma and Venezuela were described. Despite the measure, the US government defined that they will continue to provide assistance because they consider it vital for their national interests, except for Afghanistan.
Cocaine seizures vs. eradication
The Colombian government tried to avoid descertification offering details of its renovated anti -narcotics policy whose priority is the seizure of cocaine and the persecution of drug traffickers. While offering peasants to cultivate coca leaves eradicate them manually and move on to legality with government programs. Petro is an open critic of prohibitionism and considers that the “war on drugs failed.”
In his government the seizure of cocaine reached a record when he reached 884 tons in 2024. So far this year, the Ministry of Defense reported the seizure of 654 tons of cocaine.
However, in the center of the disagreement that the US government said were the record levels of coca leaves crops that reached 253,000 hectares in 2023. This according to the latest available report of the United Nations Office against Drug and Crime. As well as the eradication of these illicit crops after the Petro government lowered the goals.
Official data
The official data shows a pronounced fall since 2022 – in which the Government of the conservative Iván Duque ended and began that of Petro – when 68,800 hectares were eradicated. By 2024 9,403 were eradicated and so far from 2025 they have reported 5,048 hectares, even far from the goal of 30,000 hectares promised by the Government.
Drug trafficking has been defined by the Government as the “fuel” of illegal armed groups, to which it has offered to sit to negotiate peace or undergo justice, without still disarming them, while receiving criticism from their contradictors for the outbreaks of violence in the country.
A sum of tensions between the US and Colombia
Days before the descertification, Colombian Chancellor Rosa Villavicencio said that the results in the fight against drugs were enough to certify cooperation. However, he warned that at the same time it was a political decision in which they could weigh the recent tensions between Petro and Trump.
“In my government, Colombia does not collaborate with murders,” Petro warned on September 5 by rejecting the lethal attack of the United States to a boat that had left from Venezuela indicated by the Trump government to carry cocaine. In the attack, 11 people died to which the United States pointed out as members of the Venezuelan Gang Train of Aragua.
The tensions between Trump and Petro almost arrive in January until the imposition of mutual tariffs. This when Colombia refused to receive military planes with deportees ensuring that they were mistreated by being handcuffed. In the end, Petro gave to receive the deportees and also sent their own planes for them.
When they already seemed overcome, a new tension arose when the United States withdrew the business manager of its embassy in Bogotá as a protest to statements by the Colombian president about an alleged coup attempt against him, from which he later retracted. The diplomat returned but at that time he insisted that the bilateral relationship passed through one of his most tense moments of the last decades.
Have the information instantly on your cell phone. Join the Chano Cricitian Channel at WhatsApp through the following link:
We are also in Telegram as @diarioPrimicia, join here:
