The United States has an opportunity to reinvigorate its relationship with Colombia under the country’s new president, Abelardo de la Espriella, who took office in August and has expressed a desire to work more closely with Washington. Secretary of State Marco Rubio made Colombia his first stop on a three-country tour of South America this week, where he met with de la Espriella.
De la Espriella was narrowly elected on a platform promising to deliver on citizens’ security and economic concerns, emphasizing a disconcerting preference for heavy-handed mano dura tactics to restore law and order and calling for mass deportations of immigrants with an irregular status. This reverses Colombia’s previous acceptance of neighboring Venezuelans fleeing repression and instability.
Colombia has been a key South American ally for more than a quarter century. This relationship was cemented through Plan Colombia, a joint U.S.-Colombia counternarcotics and economic revitalization strategy adopted with U.S. bipartisan support in 2000 to help stabilize the country’s security situation and strengthen its governance institutions.
Drawing from lessons learned through Plan Colombia and subsequent iterations of the policy, the United States should utilize a wide-ranging toolkit including economic incentives, humanitarian aid, and security cooperation assistance that reinforces Colombia’s democratic institutions and ability to deliver for its own citizens. Previous successes have hinged on a broad range of economic and governance support to address factors that underlie the proliferation of armed groups – not just military power or security cooperation.
Colombia’s history of violence, drug trafficking, and internal conflict – dynamics which resurged during the presidency of Gustavo Petro and led the United States to decertify Colombia’s counternarcotics efforts – is fundamentally linked to the absence of the Colombian state in remote areas and failures to serve citizens across the country’s isolating geography. Cooperation between U.S. agencies and Colombian counterparts that bolsters law enforcement, judicial institutions, and the rule of law are a top priority that should continue and be expanded.
The State Department’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL) supports the Colombian National Police’s capacity for drug interdiction missions and law enforcement investigations by providing specialized trainings, facilitating transportation for investigations, and cooperating on prosecutions. This experience could make INL one conduit for channeling further assistance to bolster Colombia’s judicial institutions.
The Federal Bureau of Investigations maintains a field office at the U.S. Embassy in Bogota, and the Drug Enforcement Administration collaborates in investigation and intelligence activities targeting international narcotics trafficking.
Following de la Espriella’s inauguration, Colombia announced it will join the Americas Counter Cartel Coalition – also known as the Shield of the Americas. Specific plans for operationalizing the coalition remain to be determined, but Colombia may invite the U.S. military to conduct joint counternarcotics operations under the arrangement.
While Colombia’s military can be strategically leveraged to counter Colombia’s armed groups, the United States should consider the risks of elevating the military to a more prominent role than civilian law enforcement in bringing criminal actors to justice. To protect the integrity of the U.S. military, the United States should continue to vet foreign military units, adhering to the Leahy Law prohibition on working with chains of command that have engaged in gross human rights violations.
Restoring security is a key piece of the puzzle to stabilize Colombia and help its people prosper. But the Colombian government must also address other urgent economic, social, and infrastructure crises simultaneously facing the country.
Deep political polarization among Colombia’s electorate is a major challenge. De la Espriella narrowly won the presidential election with less than 1% of the vote and will need to build coalitions to advance a legislative agenda with support from a Congress that is highly fragmented among more than nine different political parties.
Perhaps most pressing is the fiscal crisis de la Espriella inherited that will be exacerbated by the 7.4-magnitude earthquake which struck Western Colombia in mid-August, just days after his inauguration.
The United States has thus far directed $26.5 million of lifesaving assistance through the State Department to humanitarian organizations distributing aid, and the U.S. military is providing additional logistical support to transport relief supplies into the country.
In addition to this emergency response, the State Department should resume programming and grantmaking of funding appropriated by Congress to support efforts and organizations engaged in social and economic development activities in marginalized parts of the country. This includes $25 million designated for Afro-Colombian and indigenous communities, which are typically among those most directly affected by violence and recruited by armed groups due to their geographic and economic vulnerability.
Over the longer term, the U.S. International Development Financing Corporation (DFC) and Export-Import Bank should continue to mobilize and encourage U.S. private sector investments and public-private partnerships in Colombia that will bring benefits to both nations. Identifying opportunities to connect U.S. private sector firms with infrastructure projects that serve and connect Colombia’s rural areas would bring economic prosperity to regions vulnerable to the influence of narcotraffickers and other armed groups. It would also help the United States counterbalance influence China has sought to build in the country through infrastructure development.
The United States and Colombia’s new leadership share a mutual interest in reversing negative security trends in Colombia that have had impactful spillover effects on the United States and throughout the Western Hemisphere. To be successful, the United States should support Colombia’s government in both restoring security and strengthening its institutions to meet the needs of all Colombians across the country.
