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Petro’s Backfiring Policies Imperil Two Decades of Colombian Progress
U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL)
May 14, 2024
[As Colombian President Gustavo Petro] reneges on his campaign promises and prepares to rewrite the Colombian constitution in his favor, his backfiring policies imperil two decades of progress toward stability.
From the 1970s to the early 2000s, Colombia was an epicenter of revolutionary violence and crime in our region. Foreign Terrorist Organizations…claimed more than 10,000 lives, including almost 4,000 civilian lives…. Drug dealers thrived in the chaos, with Colombia supplying up to 90 percent of the world’s cocaine.
All of that began to change when the United States invested more than $10 billion in helping the Colombian government reestablish security…. President Petro, in contrast, has turned back the clock…. Killers and drug dealers have “expanded their territorial control, enhanced their power of recruitment, and diversified their income.”
Meanwhile, the Colombian people have gained next to nothing. Last year, terrorist-affiliated homicides rose as much as 72 percent…, while across the nation, kidnappings rose 77 percent and extortion almost 15 percent…. And now that “Total Peace” has fallen apart, more crime—including more horrific child sex trafficking, of which Colombia is tragically a hotbed—is on the horizon.
This crime will not stay within Colombia’s borders, either. President Petro’s weak policies are already destabilizing nearby countries [like Ecuador and Haiti]….
[In response,] the United States should condition our foreign aid on a decrease in Bogotá’s appeasement tactics…. Moreover, we should never again relinquish our rights to refuse extradition of Colombian gangsters….