Featured image: President Petro presented a "ruana" (Colombian traditional poncho) to US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, during his visit to Bogota on October 4, 2022. Photo: Twitter/@petrogustavo.
The president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, has blamed the United States for the economic crisis that exists in various regions of the world.
“The United States is ruining all the economies of the world…” the Colombian president specified this Wednesday, October 19, from the municipality of Urabá Antioqueño (northwest). “The powerful Germany is entering a recession and, who would say, England, which was once the colonial power, the British Empire, today is falling apart in a deep economic crisis.”
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Petro, inaugurated last August as the first left-wing president in Colombia, has accused the US government of adopting measures, such as raising interest rates, that only protect its stability and affect the economies of world powers and, especially, those in Latin American countries.
With such Washington policies, the Colombian head of state has warned that, “it [Washington] is emptying” and “looting” the economies of Latin American countries.
In addition, regarding the rise in the price of the dollar in Colombia, Petro has indicated that it is due to conflicts and the imminent world recession. He pointed out that this is not something that occurs only in Colombia, but in several Latin American nations. “Our currencies all fall,” he lamented, “not just the Colombian peso.”
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Something similar has been happening in Europe with Euro devaluation relative to that of the US dollar. Many economists point out that this is a strategy of the United States in time of crisis, which means pressing the world financial apparatus they control, in order to make the US dollar more powerful and reduce the value of US imports; all while ignoring the social effects of such a strategy on the rest of the world.
According to official data, the price of the dollar has reached 4,800 Colombian pesos this Wednesday, setting a new record on currency exchange rates. This represents a devaluation of more than 21% if compared with the price of the US dollar on June 19, four months ago.
In another part of his statements, the Colombian president has invited the countries of Latin America to generate a common agenda with the aim of having a response to the economic crisis. “It is time for all Latin American countries to come together in the face of the global crisis and build our own agenda,” Petro said.
(HispanTV) with Orinoco Tribune content
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
OT/JRE/MF
