UNITED NATIONS — The USA accused Colombia’s president on Friday of undermining progress to lasting peace and urged its authorities to make combating violence and drug trafficking by “narco-terrorist teams” a precedence.
U.S. Ambassador Mike Waltz advised a U.N. Safety Council assembly that President Gustavo Petro’s insurance policies in Colombia and all over the world “are frankly irresponsible failures” which have led the nation to larger instability and violence.
Relations between the US and Colombia reached a brand new low final month after Petro, a leftist, participated in a pro-Palestinian protest in the course of the annual gathering of world leaders on the U.N. Common Meeting. The U.S. State Division revoked Petro’s visa after the protest.
Petro has angered senior U.S. officers by denying American extradition requests in addition to criticizing the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown and its efforts to fight drug trafficking in neighboring Venezuela.
The Safety Council assembly happened because the Trump administration introduced its fourth lethal strike within the Caribbean on boats it says had been trafficking narcotics. Petro accused the U.S. of committing “homicide” and mentioned there have been no “narco-terrorists” on the boats, simply “poor Caribbean youth.”
Waltz strongly disagreed.
“In latest months, Colombia has been rocked by assaults by narco-terrorist teams on Colombian safety forces and civilians,” the U.S. ambassador mentioned. “The violence and drug trafficking perpetrated by these arms teams, if left unchecked, can unfold and jeopardize the security of Colombians, the security of everybody within the area, and definitely of Individuals.”
Waltz mentioned the US urges Colombia’s authorities to prioritize addressing this risk, including that the administration is deeply involved in regards to the prospect of peace negotiations that would give these teams impunity.
The Safety Council has been monitoring a 2016 peace accord between the federal government and what was then the most important insurgent group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, on the authorities’s request. The settlement ended greater than 50 years of warfare through which over 220,000 folks died and practically 6 million folks had been displaced.
Waltz warned the council that the Trump administration, which has veto-power on renewing the mandate of the U.N. political mission, is inspecting whether or not it deserves continued assist.
“Sadly, over time, the mission’s mandate has broadened to replicate extreme political priorities, together with transnational justice and supporting minority ethnic teams,” Waltz mentioned.
Colombia’s U.N. Ambassador Leonor Zalabata Torres made a powerful attraction to the Safety Council to resume the mandate, which expires on Oct. 31.
Zalabata Torres, describing herself as an Indigenous girl, mentioned the Petro authorities is dedicated to the 2016 peace settlement, particularly the chapter recognizing Indigenous peoples and people of African descent “as elementary pillars for constructing a whole steady and lasting peace.”
She mentioned true reconciliation will solely come when Colombia’s cultural and ethnic variety is acknowledged and there’s justice.
U.N. Assistant Secretary-Common Miroslav Jenca, who visited Colombia in September, advised the council on Friday that consolidating peace after many years of battle “is a posh work-in-progress” and the nation is coming into a “delicate interval.”
He pointed to presidential and legislative elections in Might 2026, which he mentioned are rising tensions. Petro is barred from operating for a second time period. Jenca not too long ago has been appointed head of the U.N. mission in Bogota, a place he’ll take up later this month.
