Colombian leader denounces US claims, upholds authority, drug policy
Responding publicly, Petro dismissed claims suggesting a divide between Colombia’s leadership and its security institutions. “As for Mr. Rubio, who separates authorities from the president and claims that the president does not want to cooperate while the authorities do, I ask that he read the Constitution of Colombia, because his information is completely erroneous,” he said in a message posted on a US-based social media platform.
His comments followed a US pre-dawn military operation in Venezuela over the weekend that resulted in the detention of that country’s president and first lady, who were later transferred to New York.
Petro argued that the narrative coming from Washington was being fueled by domestic political actors in Colombia with alleged links to organized crime, claiming their goal was to undermine ties between Bogotá and Washington.
“They want a rupture in relations between the United States and Colombia so that cocaine trafficking explodes worldwide,” he said.
The Colombian leader also said he had ordered the dismissal of several senior police intelligence officers, accusing them of spreading misleading information against the state and cautioning against dependence on what he described as “fallacies.”
Reasserting his role under Colombian law, Petro emphasized that the president is the constitutionally mandated commander-in-chief of both the armed forces and the police, as stipulated in the 1991 Constitution. He recalled that the charter was drafted after the demobilization of the M-19 movement—of which he was once a member—and the formation of a democratically elected Constituent Assembly.
Defending his administration’s security and drug-control strategy, Petro said his government had overseen the largest cocaine seizure on record, stopped the expansion of coca cultivation, and implemented a voluntary crop substitution initiative covering 30,000 hectares. He described the program as a central priority personally directed by the presidency.
He added that Colombian security forces had regained control of Plateado in the Cauca department, an area he referred to as “the Wall Street of cocaine,” and had carried out operations in line with international humanitarian law, leading to the capture and killing of senior figures in armed groups involved in drug trafficking.
Petro further accused these groups of using children as shields, alleging that minors are recruited to discourage aerial strikes. “If you bomb even one of these groups without sufficient intelligence, you will kill many children,” he warned. “If you bomb peasants, thousands of guerrillas will rise in the mountains.”
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