Colombia suspends intelligence sharing with US over strikes on Caribbean boats
The move ends decades of cooperation on law-enforcement in the region
This piece is by Adriaan Alselma, from our sister-org, Colombia Reports
President Gustavo Petro ordered Colombia’s intelligence agencies to stop sharing information on drug trafficking with their United States counterparts until US President Donald Trump stops ordering strikes on boats in the Caribbean.
Petro announced the order on Twitter after US television network CNN reported that the United Kingdom suspended intelligence sharing over the strikes that have killed at least 67 people since early September.
In a post on social media platform X, the president insisted that the international drug trade must be fought in line with universal human rights.
All levels of law enforcement intelligence are ordered to suspend communications and other dealings with US security agencies. This measure will remain in effect as long as missile attacks on boats in the Caribbean continue. The fight against drugs must be subordinate to the human rights of the Caribbean people.
-President Gustavo Petro
The lethal strikes on alleged drug vessels have escalated tensions between Washington DC and Bogota, especially after a family from the Caribbean city of Santa Marta said that one of their members never came back from work.
The Trump administration has claimed that it has only been targeting “narcoterrorists,” but has failed to provide any evidence to confirm its claims that the people who were killed were involved in drug trafficking.
Colombia’s Navy and police have long worked closely with the US government and military in an attempt to curb the drug trade between the world’s largest producer of cocaine and the leading consumer of the illicit narcotic.
In October, the US President ordered his cabinet to suspend all aid to Colombia, claiming that it failed to effectively combat drug trafficking.
Petro has long claimed that the US historically has failed to make a serious effort to lower consumption and has accused Trump of using the so-called “War on Drugs” to control governments and militaries in Latin America.
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