Colombia assures the US of its absolute commitment to fighting drugs

(Patria) - Colombian Minister of Defense Pedro Sanchez insists that his country is absolutely committed to fighting drug trafficking, while the United States considers whether to put it on a blacklist for failing to curb cocaine exports, AFP reported.

The administration of US President Donald Trump is due to decide by September 15 whether to revoke Colombia's status as an ally in the fight against drugs. Nearly half a billion dollars in US funding to combat cartels and left-wing guerrillas financed by cocaine trafficking is at stake.

The decision comes amid a major US military buildup in the Caribbean, part of Trump's war on cartels, in which US forces blew up a suspicious Venezuelan drug transport vessel with eleven people on board.

Sanchez told AFP that US certification is a "symbol of cooperation, alliance, trust" between Washington and Bogota.

During a tour of a coca eradication program on Colombia's border with Ecuador on Friday, he said US military aid is crucial to enable Colombia to "act more forcefully" against human traffickers. Decertification, he said, would mean that "illegal actors win, and nations lose".

Since taking office in 2022, Colombian left-wing President Gustavo Petro has advocated for a paradigm shift in the US-led war on drugs, which he considers a failure, towards addressing the social problems that fuel drug trafficking.

Since 2022, coca cultivation has increased by about seventy percent, according to estimates by the Colombian government and the United Nations.

Sanchez says the government has "given absolutely everything" to fight drugs. "There is absolute commitment here," he assures.

US decertification would be a major blow to Colombia, where the army and police are recovering from a series of deadly attacks by guerrilla groups.

On August 21, twelve police officers were killed when renegade members of the defunct FARC rebel group shot down a police helicopter during a coca eradication operation in the northwest of the country.

On the same day, a car bomb detonated on a busy street near a military pilot school in the city of Cali, killing six people.

Sanchez said the increase in violence is a result of the government's measures against drug trafficking, which he compared to "cancer".

"When you fight cancer and apply chemotherapy (...) there is a response," he argued.

Many Colombian officials, however, fear that the US decision could go against the country, following a heated argument between Trump and Petro in January over migrant deportations.

Petro sent Colombian planes to repatriate migrants after Trump threatened sanctions against the South American country.