Gustavo Petro, Colombia’s elected president, proposed this Sunday (26) to prevent the extradition to the United States of persons who benefit from a possible “peaceful eradication of drug trafficking”.

In an interview with Cambio, the first leftist to come to power in Colombia suggested that “extradition be subject to non-compliance” to “processes for the peaceful end of drug trafficking”. The senator and former guerrilla added that the measure “will depend on a negotiation with the United States, and maybe they don’t. Or they do.”

The president, who will take the reins of the US’s main ally in the region on August 7, stressed that extradition “is a bilateral agreement and, like any marriage, we have two sides.”

Both countries are working together in the unsuccessful fight against drug trafficking, of which Petro is a staunch critic. As part of his ambitious agenda to transform a country with a huge social divide and plagued by violence, Petro has declared a “policy of mass surrender to justice” for drug traffickers. So far, he hasn’t given any further details about this offer.

Extradition has been one of the main means of punishing Colombian cocaine kingpins like Otoniel, the ex-president of the country’s largest drug gang, who was handed over to the US in May.

Two days after he won the election, Petro spoke on the phone with US President Joe Biden and promised a “more equal relationship”. Biden said he hopes to “continue to strengthen bilateral cooperation”.

After decades of struggle against coca crops, Colombia remains the largest producer of cocaine in the world, and the United States is the main consumer of this drug.