LatinNews Daily - 15 August 2022

Colombia: On 8 August, the US Agency for International Development (USAID) held a press conference in which USAID Administrator Samantha Power remarked on the inauguration the previous day of Colombia’s new left-wing president, Gustavo Petro. Power had headed a five-member US delegation that attended the inauguration ceremony. During the visit, she met with environmental activists and subsequently signalled in the press conference that the US plans to support the new leadership’s goal of fighting climate change. Power also congratulated Vice President Francia Márquez as the first Afro-Colombian to be elected to the position, calling it a “historic victory,” and referenced USAID’s direct work with Márquez in the past on environmental issues. The first question put to the delegation was on Petro’s plans to make changes to Colombia’s anti-narcotics policies, after he declared in his inauguration speech that “the war on drugs has totally failed”. Power responded by identifying some “understandable differences” in both governments’ approaches to the subject, adding that it was something on which they were working. Power did also emphasise the many overlaps between the two countries’ agendas, stating that “our efforts with Colombia are complementary in many respects to [Petro’s] agenda.”

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