Colombia to continue US intelligence-sharing in fight against drug trafficking
Colombian officials have stated that the country will continue sharing intelligence with international agencies fighting drug trafficking, despite President Gustavo Petro's recent announcement to suspend such collaboration with the United States over attacks on vessels in international waters.
Colombian Defence Minister Pedro Arnulfo Sanchez said in a social media post on Thursday that Petro had provided “clear instructions” to maintain a “continuous flow of information” with international agencies working on drug trafficking, News.Az reports citing foreign media.
“Against transnational crime, the answer is international cooperation,” Sanchez wrote on X.
The country’s interior minister, Armando Benedetti, also said in a separate statement that there had been “a misunderstanding” and Petro never said that US security agencies would stop working in Colombia alongside their Colombian counterparts.
“We will continue working as this Government has done against drug trafficking and crime with the United States,” Benedetti said on social media.
The apparent about-face comes after Petro — a left-wing leader and vocal critic of US President Donald Trump — said on Tuesday that an order had been issued “to suspend communications and other dealings with US security agencies”.
Petro has been critical of a series of deadly US attacks on boats in the Caribbean Sea that the Trump administration accused of smuggling illegal drugs.
The strikes have prompted widespread condemnation, with United Nations officials and other experts saying they amount to clear violations of international law.
“These attacks — and their mounting human cost — are unacceptable,” Volker Turk, the UN human rights chief, said in late October.
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