Colombian President Gustavo Petro arrives in the United States for a confrontation with Joe Biden

This Sunday’s trip of Colombian President Gustavo Petro to the United States and his first bilateral meeting with Joe Biden, Thursday, They draw an idyllic picture of close relations between two countries that notoriously have disagreements but know they need each other.

“The United States needs Colombia and Colombia needs the United States,” sums up Mauricio Jaramillo, a professor in the Faculty of International, Political and Urban Studies at the Universidad del Rosario, at EFE.

The arrival of Peter he embodied the “ideological harmony” of both governmentswho have a common “environmental sensitivity” and a willingness to rethink policies such as those on drugs, as well as “affinity in terms of human rights and even in terms of peace”.

Former Colombian president Iván Duque boasted that Colombia was the first US partner in the region, and he was the first Latino leader to meet with Biden after the departure of Donald Trump, even if it took him more than a year and several visits to the country to be received at the White House.

“abused” relationships.

Trump himself, for whom Uribismo, Duque’s political current, had supported in the campaign, “depreciated” the former president, according to Jaramillo, because he considered him lacking in leadership skills.

“Duke by action or omission has mishandled relations with the United States”argues Jaramillo, while Petro was “smarter” since since he took office last August he has sought a rapprochement which will take place next Thursday with the meeting with Biden in the Oval Office.

However, the White House opened its doors to Chilean Gabriel Boric on June 9, 2022, just three months after he took office, and Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva didn’t need more than a month and a half to implement the meeting after his return. to the Brazilian presidency.

Here because some consider Petro’s meeting late and which has not been so easy to achieve, despite the hard work of the Colombian ambassador in Washington, Luis Gilberto Murillo, and the apparent good tone between the two governments.

drug controversy

In the American offices there are those who are starting to get tired of the “punisher” speech. di Petro against the United States and its criticisms of drug policy management in Latin America, according to analysts consulted by EFE.

“The war on drugs has failed. The fight against the climate crisis has failed”, Petro announced during his first speech to the last United Nations General Assembly and indicated a place: “The war on drugs has been going on for 40 years, if we do not correct the course and continues in another In 40 years, the United States will see 2,800,000 young people overdose on fentanyl”.

According to the Rosario University professor, Petro is the first interim president who dared to verbalize it in this way and he repeated it to the US Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken, when he came to Colombia and reconsidered the extradition policy, for example, which is not very popular in the US.

“Petro has obligations and the United States knows it, they know that they elected him for a change,” says Jaramillo, who believes that in this case Colombia is tightening the rope because it knows that the United States has a “heavy pressure to change focus” on drugs, even if I don’t always agree with everything that is proposed.

“The United States knows that the rope can be stretched but cannot be broken and in the Casa de Nariño (Colombian presidential headquarters) they think the same thing,” a source familiar with the reports told EFE.

Bridge to Venezuela

In this symbiosis, Petro, for example, will arrive in Washington seeking “more support”, above all funds for some reforms, as can be seen in his recent statements that there is no money to implement the FARC peace deal.

And the US, in addition to seeing Colombia as help in welcoming Venezuelans – it is the country with the largest number – which is decreasing what they see as a “wave”, also needs it to relaunch its relations with Venezuela .

After verifying that the sanctions against the government of Nicolás Maduro have not helped much, Jaramillo points out, “It is in the interest of the United States that there is a democratic transition.”

And there “Petro wants to be a double bridge”, because he gets along well with both the government and the opposition, but also wants to position itself as a regional leader who wants to be to connect Venezuela and the United States.

However, and despite his announcement of an “international conference for Venezuelan dialogue” in Colombia, to be held on 25 April and to which only foreign ministers are currently expected, it is not expected that the bilateral statement after the meeting with Biden it goes too far beyond Venezuela.

In any case, even if that good tuning between the Colombian government and the United States is what glitters, close sources assure that on Thursday the conversation in the Oval Office could be tense and not very jovial.

EFE Agency