According to experts, the victory of the left-wing Gustavo Petro caused political upheaval in Colombia, and this has possible implications for the alliance with the United States.
Benjamin Gedan, of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scientists’ Latin America Program, told AFP that Petro’s election “could create tensions in the relationship” between the two countries.
Petro comes with the intent of change: He rejects the current anti-drug policy and wants to renegotiate the Free Trade Agreement with Washington.
While Washington urges its allies to produce more to stem the rise in fuel prices caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, it also favors phasing out oil production, which it has strong ties to the United States.
While Petro is moving away from the more radical lefts of Nicaragua and Venezuela, he sympathizes with the “progressivism” of former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Chilean Gabriel Boric, and has pledged to normalize relations with Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
Gedan says this could influence “US efforts to isolate the regime” from Maduro, whom he does not recognize as president because he found his 2018 re-election fraudulent.
When he took office on August 7, Petro plans to open its border with Venezuela, while the country is already hosting more than 1.8 million Venezuelan immigrants and refugees.
‘Very friendly’
The future of connectivity depends on “the search for shared points of interest,” Jason Marczak, director of the Adrienne Arsht Latin America Center, told AFP.
“Of course, Gustavo Petro’s government will adopt international policies different from the current ones, but that’s the change the Colombian people want,” he says.
Petro described his first phone call with Biden as “very friendly”, which he said promised a “more equal relationship”.
Carolina Jiménez Sandoval, head of the Washington Latin America Office, estimates that the “time” has come for the US government to “play the role of a true ally (…).
Washington should be “financially more generous” with a peace deal signed with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), which was discharged in 2016 and supported by Biden as an aide to Barack Obama.
Sandoval also recommends a change in anti-drug policy with “actions beyond crop removal.”
After decades of fighting against plantations, Colombia remains the world’s largest producer of coca and the United States its main consumer.
Perhaps the biggest convergence of Biden and Petro’s agendas is the fight against climate change.
Petro calls for a “dialogue” about the crisis, putting on the table the greenhouse gases produced by the US “like almost no other country”, which the Amazon rainforest absorbs like a sponge.
source: Noticias
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