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By Robert Birsel
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President Donald Trump has designated Colombia as among the countries that have failed to cooperate on efforts to eradicate illegal drugs, putting the traditional South American ally on the list for the first time in nearly 30 years.
Newsweek contacted the Colombian Ministry of Foreign Affairs for comment by email after office hours on Monday.
Why It Matters
Adding Colombia to the list of countries failing to meet anti-drug obligations, even though the U.S. has deferred the designation, will put further strain on relations with Bogota's president, Gustavo Petro.
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The designation for Colombia comes as Trump has adopted a much more aggressive policy on illegal drugs. On Monday, he announced a second strike on a suspected drug cartel boat from Venezuela, killing three people on board, marking a clear escalation in his use of military force to target drug networks.
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What To Know
"Under Petro's misguided leadership, coca cultivation and cocaine production in Colombia has increased to historic levels," the U.S. Department of State said in a post on X.
"[Trump] has determined that the Colombian government failed to uphold its drug control obligations, but he has issued a waiver so critical U.S. cooperation, including on counternarcotics, can continue," it said.
Petro responded by accusing U.S. authorities of a lie, saying cultivation of coca, the raw material for cocaine, increased under his predecessor, Iván Duque, and a policy of trying to eradicate cocaine by spraying herbicide from aircraft had failed.
"You're starting with a factual lie," Petro said in a post on X, originally in Spanish, addressed to the U.S. Embassy, which posted the State Department's comment. "Coca cultivation has grown during the Duque administration, and with forced fumigation. It's U.S. policy that has failed."
The U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime said in a report last October that the area of land in Colombia planted with coca had grown by 10 percent over the previous year to reach the largest area in more than two decades.
Petro, who was elected president for a four-year term in 2022, pointed the finger of blame at drug consumers in Western countries.
"To reduce coca leaf cultivation, what's needed isn't glyphosate dropped from airplanes, but rather a decrease in demand for cocaine, primarily in the U.S. and Europe," Petro said.
Colombia has been a key U.S. security and economic partner in South America for decades, although relations have grown tense more recently.
Petro opposed some U.S.-backed anti-drug policies and in January he initially refused to allow U.S. military aircraft transporting Colombian deportees to land. He backed down after Trump announced a range of retaliatory measures, including tariffs and visa restrictions on Colombian officials.
The last time Colombia was on the U.S. list of countries failing to uphold counternarcotics agreements, a process known as "decertification," was in 1997.
What People Are Saying
The U.S. State Department, referring to Colombia's decertification and the waiver on it, said on X: "Results matter—we must see progress and it must be soon!"
The nongovernmental organization the Washington Office on Latin American said in a statement: "The decades-old U.S. practice of judging and punishing other states for allegedly substandard counter-drug performance through 'decertification' is an antiquated, blunt, counterproductive foreign policy tool that should no longer exist."
What Happens Next
Colombia is due to hold legislative elections next March and a presidential election in May. Some analysts expect center-right parties to dominate the 2026 polls.
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