The administration of US President Donald Trump has added Colombia to a list of countries that are not cooperating in the fight against drugs for the first time in nearly 30 years, which is a sharp criticism of a traditional US ally and reflects a recent surge in cocaine production and a deterioration in relations between the White House and the country's leftist president, the Associated Press reported, BTA reported.
Although it determined that Colombia has not met its international obligations to fight drugs, the Trump administration issued a waiver of sanctions that would have led to significant cuts in aid, citing vital US national interests.
But it is a significant step against one of the most loyal US allies in Latin America that analysts say could hurt the economy and further complicate efforts to restore security in the country's rural areas.
President Gustavo Petro, who has repeatedly said that whiskey kills more people than cocaine, lamented Trump's decision during a televised cabinet meeting on Monday, saying Colombia was being punished after sacrificing the lives of "dozens of police officers, soldiers and ordinary citizens trying to stop cocaine" from reaching the United States.
"What we are doing is not really important to the Colombian people," he said of the country's anti-drug efforts. "The goal is to stop North American society from getting its nose dirty" with cocaine.
The United States last added Colombia to the list through a process known as decertification in 1997, when the country's cartels - through threats of violence and money - had taken over much of the country's institutions.
Then-President Ernesto Samper faced credible allegations that he had received illegal campaign donations from the now-defunct Cali cartel, and 4 kilograms of heroin were found on the plane he was flying to New York to attend the UN General Assembly.
After Samper left office, a remarkable change began. Successive U.S. administrations - both Republican and Democratic - sent billions in foreign aid to Colombia to eradicate illegal coca plantations, strengthen the armed forces in the fight against drug-financed rebels, and provide economic alternatives to the poor farmers at the bottom of the cocaine industry.
This cooperation, a rare success of US foreign policy in Latin America, began to unravel after the suspension of aerial destruction of cocaine crops with glyphosate a decade ago. This follows a ruling by Colombia’s Supreme Court that found the U.S.-funded program potentially harmful to the environment and farmers.
The 2016 peace agreement with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, the country’s largest rebel group known as the FARC, also committed Colombia to abolish punitive policies in favor of state-building, rural development, and voluntary crop rotation.
Since then, cocaine production has increased significantly. The area devoted to growing coca, the main ingredient in cocaine, has tripled in the past decade, reaching a record 253,000 hectares in 2023, according to the latest report from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.
Along with production, drug seizures have also increased to 654 tons so far this year. Colombia seized a record 884 tons last year.
But unlike previous governments, manual eradication of cocaine crops under Petro has slowed, reaching just 5,048 hectares this year - far less than the 68,000 hectares eradicated in the final year of his conservative predecessor's term, and well below the government's target of 30,000 hectares.