USA ready to have an “open and honest discussion” about the so-called war on drugs with their new president ColombiaGustavos Petros, who stressed in a speech he gave immediately after his inauguration that his goal is to commit suicide, was announced Monday by members of the American delegation in Bogota.

“I believe that the president (Petros) wants to secure peace. This is also in the interests of the United States. So this is the basis for an open and honest debate,” Democratic Rep. Gregory Meeks said at a press conference.

Mr. Meeks was part of the delegation that attended last Sunday’s inauguration ceremony for Colombia’s first left-wing president. It was led by Samantha Power, head of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

In his speech immediately after the inauguration, Mr. Petros emphasized that it was “time for a new international consensus that recognizes that the war on drugs has failed” and will highlight the “strong policy of prevention of consumption” in developed countries.

Rep. Meeks said he was “impressed” by the speech, in which Mr. Petro also mentioned the 1 million Latin American deaths in the forty-year war on drugs and the 70,000 North Americans who die every year from drug overdoses.

“We agreed to talk, to discuss the need to stop the violence that was discussed,” assured the American politician representing the state of New York.

Colombia is the country with the largest production of cocaine in the world, the United States is the country with the largest consumption of this substance in the world. Drug trafficking is also a key source of funding for armed organizations operating in Colombia.

“Huge Opportunity”

There are “differences” in opinion, but there will certainly be “discussion” because “we agree that drug trafficking has devastating consequences for the population of both Colombia and the United States,” Ms. Power assured for her part.

Following a meeting yesterday with Mr. Petros and his Vice President Francesca Márquez, Ms. Power tweeted out the need for action on the “climate crisis” as well as “common commitment to advancing the peace process” in Colombia.

At a press conference, she spoke of a “huge opportunity” in the fight against deforestation and climate change. He called Colombia a potentially leading force in this race in the region. “Now we have a president and a vice president who consider themselves conservationists—almost first and foremost,” Ms. Power concluded. “We see this as a huge opportunity.”

He added that Mr. Petro mentioned several common goals, but reiterated the position taken by other US officials that Washington and Bogotá were not going to agree on everything.

The new president wants to phase out oil production in Colombia and shift Latin America’s fourth-largest economy to clean energy production from renewable sources, Ms. Power recalled. The private sector “is very interested in Colombia. There are many ways to encourage investment in energy conversion to renewable sources (…). I think you will start to see their acceleration,” added the head of USAID.

Gustavo Petros proposes to suspend the extradition of drug traffickers to the United States, guaranteeing the “peaceful dismantling” of their activities. However, the new head of state admits that this will depend on “negotiations” with Washington, which has not yet commented on this issue.

^{Source: APE, AFP, Reuters.}