2023-05-10 00:02:02
BOGOTÁ (AP) — The decision of the government of President Gustavo Petro to “strengthen” cooperation with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in the global arena generated surprise and questioning in the South American nation because the president had criticized just a few months to that organization.
In fact, several sectors allied with Petro —the first left-wing president in Colombia— questioned at the time the designation of Colombia as a “strategic ally not a member of NATO” during the administration of his predecessor Iván Duque.
“Why war if what we need is to save the human species? What good is NATO and the empires, if what is coming is the end of intelligence? … ”, Petro explained during his speech at the United Nations General Assembly last September.
In dialogue with The Associated Press, the former Defense Minister and former Colombian ambassador in Brussels, Rodrigo Rivera, considered it positive that the Petro government wants to strengthen that relationship with NATO, but acknowledges that it is falling into “ambiguities” by maintaining at the same time time its closeness to the government of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
“It is a balancing act where everyone guesses that the president’s heart is with Maduro and with (Russian President Vladimir) Putin, but he has no room for maneuver to declare it openly,” said Rivera, who believes that deep down the decision might represent the answer to a dilemma: “If our interests are on the side of democracies or if they are on the side of authoritarian regimes.”
The international analyst and journalist Fernando Cvitanic considered that the decision is “very contradictory.”
“He declared himself neutral in the war with Ukraine, he is going to travel to China, he is getting close to Maduro… So how? I cannot be right with God and with the devil… being a NATO ally implies total alignment,” Cvitanic said in comments to the AP.
The former president of Colombia, Ernesto Samper, was much more radical in his position. He pointed out that he does not agree with Colombia being an ally of NATO and of any organization that separates from the Latin American region, among other things, because —as he said— it would be breaking neutrality in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.
“We would somehow end up taking sides in the war between Ukraine and Russia, without ignoring our rejection of any territorial invasion. We are more on the side of the global south that is calling for a peaceful and political solution to the war between Ukraine and Russia,” he added.
The strengthening of the alliance with NATO appears in the Security, Defense and Citizen Coexistence Policy plan of the Ministry of Defense, headed by the current minister Iván Velásquez. According to the document, it would seek to strengthen cooperation, especially in the area of ”climate change, cyber defense, human rights and integrity building”, within the framework of the association agreement with the bloc.
For former Minister Rivera, the points that are intended to be reinforced are positive and are aligned with the proposal made by the Petro government. The “climate change, which is at the heart of Petro’s speech. But also cyber defense, which is a transversal concern for all countries”.
He also mentioned the importance of NATO helping Colombia to strengthen human rights in the exercise of public force and also “transparency in contracting, purchasing, personnel management and in other areas such as respect for the women”.
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