Rubio promises security cooperation to Colombia’s new president
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Colombian President Abelardo De La Espriella (left) with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio at the Batallon Paraiso military complex on Sept 8.
PHOTO: REUTERS
- US Secretary of State Marco Rubio aims to finalise trade deals soon with Colombia, Peru and Ecuador, amid growing ideological alignment and shared interests in security and economics.
- Colombia's new right-wing President Abelardo De La Espriella, endorsed by Trump, seeks US tariff relief after a major earthquake and pledges a strong crackdown on crime and drug trafficking.
- The US plans $1 billion in security aid to Colombia and considers joint strikes on armed groups like ELN and FARC to combat terrorism and drug trafficking in the region.
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BARRANQUILLA, Colombia – US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Sept 8 he hoped to see the US security relationship with Colombia rebound under the country’s newly inaugurated right-wing president, as he began a tour of Latin American countries whose leaders are closely aligned with President Donald Trump’s administration.
At their meeting in the coastal city of Barranquilla, Colombian President Abelardo De La Espriella said he and Rubio discussed security cooperation against drug trafficking, improved economic ties and an expanded role for Colombia in what he called “bulletproofing the hemisphere”.
He said Colombia would be an ally to the US on neighbouring Venezuela.
“Colombia wants to newly consolidate itself as the principal hemispheric partner for the United States on security,” said De La Espriella, who took office on Aug 7.
Rubio told reporters that the Pentagon and Colombia’s security forces were discussing new cooperation and Colombia’s equipment requests.
He attributed fraught ties in recent years to De La Espriella’s predecessor, leftist Gustavo Petro, who frequently clashed with Trump.
The US secretary said there was a longstanding security relationship with Colombia, but “unfortunately, it was impeded over the last three or four years by political leadership here, but that has now changed”.
Rubio said Washington hoped to restore the cooperation and “perhaps to build upon it. And I think you have a president here now that is very interested in making that happen”.
De La Espriella said Colombia sought US help in the form of aircraft including drones, radar, anti-money-laundering efforts and other security tools for its fight against drug gangs.
Rubio agreed Colombia needed help with equipment, intelligence and training, but did not specify what the US would provide.
Rubio will travel later this week to Ecuador to meet President Daniel Noboa and then to Peru for talks with President Keiko Fujimori, who was inaugurated on July 28.
The visit comes at a moment of growing ideological alignment with all three nations, which Rubio said was part of a trend in the Western Hemisphere towards support for Washington’s goals.
The US also hopes to conclude trade deals with Colombia, Ecuador and Peru in the near future, Rubio said before departing the US on Sept 8.
Colombia is seeking relief from US tariffs of 12.5 per cent that took effect in July, which officials have said could affect Colombian exports.
De La Espriella, an anti-establishment figure who refers to himself as “The Tiger”, was endorsed by Trump, and has asked the US leader to suspend the tariff after a powerful 7.4-magnitude earthquake struck the west of the country in August, just days after De La Espriella was sworn in.
De La Espriella, a former criminal defence lawyer, said on Sept 8 he hoped to cooperate with Washington on what he called a new “Plan Homeland”, a reference to “Plan Colombia”, a joint programme against drug trafficking that began in the late 1990s under which the US provided billions of dollars to Colombia.
Colombia will fumigate plantations of coca – the base ingredient in cocaine – destroy cocaine laboratories and go after drug bosses, De La Espriella added.
His country is willing to meet annual targets in the fight against drug trafficking, he said, an apparent reference to Trump’s spats with De La Espriella’s leftist predecessor over cocaine production. REUTERS