Medellin, Colombia – President Gustavo Petro spoke out Monday about Colombia’s exclusion from Trump’s “Shield of the Americas” alliance, citing the country’s significant experience in fighting drug trafficking networks.
Petro’s criticism comes after President Trump on Saturday announced a coalition of 17 Latin American and Caribbean countries that would use “lethal force” against “terrorist networks” of drug traffickers across the region.
The first summit of the “Shield of the Americas” held at President Trump’s Miami golf club invited mainly representatives of right-wing and center-right governments, including key White House allies such as Argentina, Ecuador and El Salvador.
“The only way to defeat these enemies is to unleash the power of our military,” President Trump said after the meeting.
But at the United Nations drug summit in Vienna on Monday, Petro defended his country’s record of cocaine seizures and said Trump’s alliance would be weakened without his country’s participation.
“Colombia has the most sophisticated intelligence capabilities to confiscate things without killing anyone,” he said.
The president acknowledged that such a political alliance was a matter of “liberal political interest,” but argued that “with 17 small, weak countries lacking experience in the cocaine trade, the southern shield will not be able to be created and will be porous.”
He highlighted Colombia’s existing alliances with 75 countries and the record 3,300 tons of cocaine seized under his government.
Petro also celebrated Colombia’s crop substitution program strategy, which he called “a true revolution in how we solve the problem of coca leaf production.” The program, which aims to help farmers replace coca leaf production with legal and sustainable crops, has converted 42,000 hectares of farmland, according to Petro.
Even though President Trump emphasized that “Mexico is the epicenter of cartel violence,” Mexican President Claudia Scheyenbaum also did not attend.
The summit comes a week after the first Americas Counter Cartel Conference, which also excluded Petro and Sheinbaum.
Dr. Christopher Sabantini, a Chatham House researcher, criticized the American shield: “It is wrong to believe that only like-minded leaders can use summits to build a meaningful foundation for long-term shared principles and cooperation.” He added that the absence of Colombia, Mexico and Brazil was a “fundamental flaw.”
At Saturday’s summit, Trump also warned of the prospect of action against Cuba, saying the country had reached its “last moment.”
“As we achieve historic change in Venezuela, we look forward to great change on the horizon in Cuba,” the president said.
Featured image: Petro speaking at the UN conference in Vienna.
Image credit: @petrogustavo via X
