2023-07-31 13:11:03
The relationship of the Gustavo Petro government with the United States is not going well. From Washington, the ambassador, Luis Gilberto Murillo, has pointed out “some former officials who are dedicated to lobbying once morest it,” according to what he said a few days ago at the daily transmission of Presidency. It is a veiled reference to the role of former president Iván Duque and former ambassador Juan Carlos Pinzón, opponents of Petro and active in the United States.
However, in addition to the voices of these politicians, the central short circuit of the relationship has to do with the management of Foreign Minister Álvaro Leyva. As La Silla confirmed to him by two diplomatic sources, Leyva has lost credibility and communication channels with congressmen and Biden administration officials. Some have sought out other Colombian diplomats due to the lack of trust with the foreign minister, which hinders the dialogue rhythms.
In particular, the bipartisan relationship that Colombia had been careful to maintain in Congress shows signs of open deterioration. In the House, now controlled by the Republican party, congressmen held a hearing titled “Colombia’s Descent Toward Socialism”. The subpoena is a sign that the Petro government has failed to counter the negative perception of an influential sector of Congress.
The foreign minister has lost credibility in Washington
Last Thursday followingnoon, the US House foreign affairs committee spoke for nearly two hours regarding the Petro government at the hearing cited by the Republicans. The speaker was representative María Elvira Salazar, from Florida, who has been a harsh critic of the Petro government since she met with the Colombian president in April.
“Petro said that oil is worse than cocaine, perhaps that is why he has made a greater effort to combat the oil industry than drug trafficking,” Salazar said. “Unfortunately, the United States is applauding their behavior,” he added.
Democratic representatives came to the defense of Colombia. For example, Joaquin Castro drew attention to the policy of change with which the Petro government was elected. “The role of the United States is not to choose the leaders, we must be responsive regarding the Colombian election,” Castro said.
Mark Wells, the undersecretary of state for Brazil and the Southern Cone, also defended the relationship. “The bilateral relationship is going through an excellent moment due to our agreements with the Colombian government on the environment and labor,” he said, “we have overcome many obstacles and we trust that our bilateral relationship will continue for many generations,” he concluded.
Behind this public endorsement, there is increasing difficulty in carrying messages to Bogotá. For this reason, “diplomatic officials bypass the chancellor and look directly for Murillo or one of the deputies to talk regarding the relationship,” says a diplomatic source, who requests that his name be withheld to talk regarding his boss.
This wear and tear in communication with the Foreign Ministry was evident during a low-profile visit that Foreign Minister Leyva made to Washington between May and June. The purpose of the trip was to talk regarding the safe migration offices that the United States will open in Colombia to control the passage through the Darién.
During that visit, as confirmed to La Silla by two diplomatic sources, Leyva insisted on the reduction of sanctions once morest the Nicolás Maduro regime. Defending the interests of Chavismo is one of the reasons why Colombia has lost its pivotal role in the Venezuelan political process.
This wear and tear in communications was evident since the high-level visit to Washington, where President Petro met with Biden, in April. During the trip, Petro and the foreign minister met with congressmen from the Republican party, including representatives María Elvira Salazar and Mario Diaz-Balart, both of Cuban origin.
Upon leaving the meeting, salazar said that Petro “is a president who does not answer, who rambles, which is what the socialists do.” Since then, the Republican party has been looking at the representatives of the Petro government.
Diaz-Balart is key because he is the president of the Appropriations subcommittee for foreign operations of the House, which decides on the money that the United States sends. After the meeting, he said that if Petro supports “malicious and anti-American actors in our hemisphere, then he will be responsible for destroying the foundations of the relationship between our countries.”
“The meeting with Diaz-Balart did not go well,” a source who knew first-hand confirmed to La Silla, who requests that his name be reserved to give details of the private meeting. “Petro and the chancellor went out of the script and that did not go down very well with certain sectors of Congress,” he explains.
To top it off, the foreign minister made other comments in public that were also out of the script: he called the money that the United States sends to Colombia alms and said that these meetings might have been held in the “department of Panama,” which is why which he later had to apologize to the neighboring country.
“Murillo is an excellent ambassador, but in the United States they have decided that they do not speak with Leyva on the issue of Venezuela, for example,” says a diplomatic source, “they do not trust the foreign minister to talk regarding these issues,” he explains.
“Ambassador Murillo has managed to counteract these messages, but the perception of disorder they generate does not help and the ambassador is left alone,” added another source.
Despite the complaints regarding Leyva’s lack of line, a source from the Foreign Ministry, who requests anonymity because he does not have a voice on this issue, told La Silla that the foreign minister’s relationship with US congressmen is not bad. “Only that they have had few spaces to interact, but it is a normal relationship”, he affirms.
Until the publication of this note, La Silla has not received an official response from Foreign Minister Leyva. But the communications office of the Foreign Ministry assured that communication with the United States is permanent and fluid.
From the Foreign Ministry there have been successful approaches with US congressmen. Like the visit that led by Republican Representative August Pfluger, Chairman of the House Security Subcommittee. “It was a very good visit,” the Foreign Ministry source told La Silla, “the foreign minister arranged to meet more with congressmen, particularly Republicans, that was left for the fall.”
It is not certain that Leyva will continue in the Foreign Ministry to meet that appointment. As a source from Casa de Nariño confirmed to La Silla, a new ministerial shake-up is coming on August 7, and the foreign minister is one of the ministers who is being targeted.
The threat to cut aid to Colombia
Representative Diaz-Balart was one of the moderate Republican Cuban-Americans. But as the interaction has unfolded, even they have taken tougher positions.
After the meeting with Petro, Diaz-Balart has condemned that the United States stops monitoring illicit crops in Colombia and that the country has expelled Juan Guaidó when he arrived at the conference on Venezuela. “Once once more, the Petro government appears to be siding with the narco-terrorist dictatorships in our hemisphere,” the representative trilled regarding this latest episode.
Another result of the wear and tear is that Diaz-Balart moved in the lower house of Congress a proposal to defer the money that the United States sends to Colombia. As chairman of the subcommittee, Diaz-Balart had support for this proposal in the House, but it is unlikely to advance in the Senate.
“This is an attempt to punish countries that have a relationship with Cuba or Venezuela,” a source who works for a Latin American organization in Washington told La Silla, “our concern is that if the money Colombia receives is reduced , everything ends up going to defense and security issues ”, he adds.
“The problem with the bad communications of the Colombian government in Washington is that those speeches promoted by the right-wing lobby find their way into congressmen. Particularly on the Cuban-American right, which is promoting a narrative in which the world is facing a second Cold War and supposed socialism must be isolated,” he concludes.
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