WEEK: The situation with the United States today is dramatic. Colombia was decertified in the fight against drugs, and President Petro was included on the Clinton list and had his visa revoked. What could happen to the president?
Andrés Pastrana: A US president doesn't come out and say that the president of Colombia is one of the leaders of drug trafficking if he doesn't have proof and evidence. This Friday his inclusion on the Clinton list was confirmed. So, I think Petro has to be very worried. You are a journalist and I was too, and we both know that a statement like that can't be sustained without support. And, as I told you, there must be something very serious going on.
Andrés Pastrana: I could only say that this week Congresswoman María Elvira Salazar published a tweet in which she said that "El Pollo" Carvajal had already provided proof and evidence of how PDVSA and Nicolás Maduro had financed Petro's campaign. So, that is extremely serious. And after his inclusion on the Clinton list, I say that an indictment is coming. It smells like an indictment to me.
WEEK: Why do you think things haven't gotten worse for the country, with economic or immigration sanctions?
Andrés Pastrana: Because President Trump may have heard from friends of Colombia in the United States. I think, for example, Senator Bernie Moreno has said that we must continue to separate the Colombian people from Gustavo Petro and his government. Bernie is Colombian; after all, his father and mother are Colombian. And I think he still has, through his siblings, a lot of closeness to Colombia. He is very close to Vice President J.D. Vance and has played a very important role. I also think Congressman Carlos Giménez and Congresswoman María Elvira Salazar make that distinction. Another great friend of the Colombians is Secretary of State Marco Rubio. I think that's why tariff measures weren't taken, which could have been achieved with very high tariffs. And I think that's why President Trump remains focused on Petro, his family, and those closest to him.
Andrés Pastrana: That has a long-standing context. I've been saying since 2015 that the Cartel of the Suns in Venezuela not only exists, but that its leaders are Nicolás Maduro, Diosdado Cabello, and Vladimir Padrino. During those years, something strange happened: Maduro's nephews were captured and convicted of drug trafficking in the United States, but were later pardoned and released by the Joe Biden administration in an operation we never understood.
SEMANA: What does that have to do with what's happening today?
Andrés Pastrana: Well, this week, for the first time, a full-frontal war has been declared to combat the drug cartels, with a text already sent to the American Congress. This isn't entirely new. You'll remember that in 1985, Ronald Reagan was the first to declare the war on drugs, the War on Drugs. So, what the President of the United States is saying very clearly is:"If you don't control it, we will."
WEEK: Donald Trump's deployment in the Caribbean has been hotly debated in international law.
Andrés Pastrana: In my view, there's a lack of information here regarding what control of territorial waters means. There have been many maritime interdiction agreements between Colombia and the United States between the Colombian and U.S. navies. One of the questions we always asked ourselves was how it's possible that drugs leave Colombia, and despite having the best radars, the best submarines, the best controls, and the best borders, boats still enter the United States. Supposedly, these should be the most protected coasts. So, what we're seeing is that Trump, in my view, is for the first time implementing real interdiction measures to control the arrival of drugs to its coasts. This isn't just being done by the United States: the French Navy patrols its waters to prevent drugs from reaching Europe. The Netherlands does the same in Aruba and Curaçao.
Andrés Pastrana: Exactly. This is an issue that hasn't been given much importance in Colombia. The United States Secretary of Defense, now known as Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, said that they attacked a boat belonging to the National Liberation Army (ELN). That classifies it as a narcoterrorist group. The same secretary stated that these groups are now considered the Al-Qaeda of the Western Hemisphere. SEMANA: You were the president who consolidated Plan Colombia. How do you feel about seeing this situation?
Andrés Pastrana: It's very sad. Plan Colombia has been the country's most successful policy in the fight against drugs. When I came to power, we had 180,000 hectares of coca. Plan Colombia managed to raise nearly $15 billion for the country. In two years, by the year 2000, we had already eradicated half of that. Later, fortunately, President Uribe continued Plan Colombia, and by the end of his term, we had eradicated 40,000 hectares. So, it's a farce to say that the war on drugs wasn't yielding results. Of course it was. If Juan Manuel Santos, as president, had continued the fight against drugs, we wouldn't have the current situation today.
WEEK: What happened then?
Andrés Pastrana: Santos effectively handed over the fumigation to the FARC. If you look at the figures, we went from 40,000 hectares the first year to 90,000 the second and 150,000 the third. Today we have more than 250,000 hectares. Santos did absolutely nothing on this issue, and today we have the number of cultivated hectares that we have. It's also striking that in Colombia the Constitutional Court allows the use of glyphosate for legal products, but prohibits it for illegal ones. We still don't fully understand that. But there's another point I'd like to comment on. SEMANA: Onward.
Andrés Pastrana: This is also very serious for Colombia, because Plan Colombia was born under a thesis: that of co-responsibility. I told the United States, to President Clinton:"I, President, am the largest producer of coca in the world, but you are the largest consumer. You are a rich country; I am a poor country." So, today, in the fight against drugs, Colombia, the United States, and Europe must be committed. Why do we have to contribute all the resources? That's not fair, and that's why it's important for the United States, Europe, and Asia to also contribute to reverse this failure.
WEEK: The scenario looks catastrophic. Do you see a way out?
Andrés Pastrana: Yes, there is. That's what happened to me. When I arrived at the Casa de Nariño in 1998, President Ernesto Samper didn't have a visa for the United States. I had to take over a country that was completely uncertified in the fight against drug trafficking, with zero aid from the United States. This will change with the next government, which I hope will be center-right, as many Colombians hope. If there's a change of government, I'm sure we'll be able to immediately mend relations with the United States.
WEEK: But how?
Andrés Pastrana: If you ask me: fumigate, eradicate, but let's start today. Because there's another statement from President Trump this week: on the presidential plane, he tells Petro that either he eradicates or"it's gonna be very nasty," meaning,"it's going to be very ugly like I'm going to do." So, what's going on? As I said at the beginning, President Trump has differentiated Gustavo Petro from Colombians. The president is going to try to play the victim, but there's a lot at stake. If, for example, they impose tariffs on coffee, 500,000 families would be affected; if they impact flowers, that would be more than 350,000 single mothers. And I could go on with the clothing industry, oil, and energy. Three, four, or five million jobs could be lost here because of Petro and his policies. If there's no fight, President Trump has already said,"You're a drug den." So what we have to show him is that we can eradicate drugs.
Andrés Pastrana: What's clear here is that the Picota Pact is being fulfilled. Are these perks being given because of that pact? There's no clarity in the fight against drugs, because Petro is a president elected with money from drug trafficking. This is what his brother Juan Fernando said, who claimed that he got a million and a half votes in prison, which was exactly what Petro used to win the presidency. His son Nicolás also said that money from drug trafficking had entered his campaign, and there's still no clarity on that. Second, if the United States has already detected money from PDVSA and the Cartel of the Suns that came in, there could have been a violation of limits. Where are they? SEMANA: Where else do you see this pact being executed? Where else do you see this pact being executed?
Andrés Pastrana: In the fact that he has sat down with the Gulf Cartel and other cartels in Qatar. He has given them political status, which is illegitimate and illegal, because they lack the political status to negotiate. They even tried to identify themselves with the Gaitanista Army. Jorge Eliécer Gaitán's own daughter withdrew from the table and said that this did not represent her father or that group. Furthermore, there is a bill in progress to provide benefits to these actors. I think Gustavo Petro should clarify this for the country. As I told you, the most successful plan of United States foreign policy was Plan Colombia, which I proposed. And it was celebrated at the White House under Obama. I insist: we must implement Plan Colombia 2.0. That must be an objective of the next administration, of a friendly administration: to sit down again and implement Plan Colombia 2.0 to recover the country.
