Colombian President Gustavo Petro. Photo: EFE/File photo.
The Colombian head of state Gustavo Petro spoke out again Tuesday, September 16, regarding the United States government’s decision to decertify Colombia in the fight against drugs. On his X account, he published a series of messages, including a graph showing an upward trend in coca leaf cultivation in the country since 2013.
“This is the growth trend in coca leaf cultivation, according to the United Nations. The growth trend in coca leaf cultivation began in 2013. It is not due to my government,” the president wrote.
Está es la tendencia de crecimiento de los cultivos de hoja de Coca según Naciones Unidas.
La tendencia de crecimiento de los cultivos de hoja de Coca arranca desde el 2013.
No sé debe a mi gobierno. La razón del crecimiento de estos cultivos, como en toda mercancía, se debe al… pic.twitter.com/rIGw590FK8
— Gustavo Petro (@petrogustavo) September 16, 2025
In the message, the president links the increase in the area planted with coca leaves with drug use.
“The reason for the growth of these crops, as with all commodities, is due to the increase in consumption worldwide, especially in Europe, while consumption levels in the US remain stable,” he added.
In this context, the president stated that “certification should not be an instrument of domination and power” and reiterated that the world needs to change its anti-drug policy because it has failed.
“The only thing that’s changed is that the world is going from worse to worse. The US halted the growth of cocaine use because it switched en masse to fentanyl, which is 30 times more deadly than cocaine,” he noted.
- Minutes earlier, on the same X account, he posted another message on the subject: “The US is involved in Colombia’s internal politics; it wants a puppet president. The Colombian people will decide whether they want a puppet president like the one who sold out Panama, or whether they want a free and sovereign nation.”
He also responded to US Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s media remarks accusing Petro of not being a “good partner” in the drug fight:
“He means that I have not been a good partner in the struggle — risking my personal and family safety — in confronting the ties between drug-trafficking paramilitaries and political power,” the president said.
‘I will not bring the nation to its knees’
Along the same lines, he added that “the United States is decertified for not reducing cocaine and fentanyl use in its society.”
Finally, the president emphasized: “I will not bring the nation to its knees and allow peasants to be beaten. We are neither lackeys nor subjects.”
On Monday night, upon learning of the US government’s decision, the president emphatically announced that the decertification would end Colombia’s dependence on the United States.
“It’s US policy that has failed. To reduce coca leaf cultivation, what’s needed isn’t glyphosate dropped from airplanes, but rather a decrease in demand for cocaine from the US and Europe,” the president said during the televised cabinet meeting.
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
OT/JB/SH
