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Biden, Beware: Colombia’s Petro Is An Agent of Chaos
U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL)
April 20, 2023
Medium
[Colombian President] Gustavo Petro…, who will speak with President Joe Biden in the White House this Thursday (if he can make his scheduled meeting on time), comes to the United States as an agent of chaos.
The most obvious and egregious instance of this is Petro’s “peace talks.” For decades, Colombia has been ravaged by the violent outbursts of rebel groups like the National Liberation Army (ELN)…. Over the past few months, Petro has sought to end the violence through negotiations…, but he’s only sowing disaster….
Case in point: the ELN continues to attack the Colombian government…. These are the mercenaries Petro wants to appease, even to the point of backtracking on Colombia’s longstanding extradition agreement with the U.S. It’s terrible, but it’s what happens when you negotiate with terrorists from a position of weakness.
It’s also what happens when you cooperate with tyrants…. Petro has been the foremost Latin American advocate of “engagement” with narco-dictator Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela and puppet dictator Miguel Díaz-Canel in Cuba [because] he wants both regimes to use their leverage over the ELN in Colombia’s favor. [I]t’s a fool’s errand, because internationally ostracized dictators have nothing to gain from increasing stability in the region….
Petro is all the crazier for wanting to mediate negotiations between Venezuela’s narco-regime and members of the Venezuelan opposition…. Maduro will make no concessions and will only use talks to stall for time….
The icing on the cake is that Petro has also joined the ranks of Latin America’s pro-China voices. In February, his Ministry of Foreign Affairs went so far as to issue guidelines instructing Colombian officials to refuse contact with Taiwan….
President Biden must remember all this in today’s meeting with Petro…. Above all, [he] must not cave in to any of Petro’s demands…. Americans and Colombians both deserve better than that.
Read the rest here.