As part of a growing commitment to its alliance with Trump, the new government of Abelardo de la Espriella has agreed to carry out joint military operations with US forces, which could involve US strikes against targets on Colombian territory. This decision is in violation of the Colombian constitution under which it is up to the Senate to decide on the presence of foreign troops on Colombian territory.
On 12 August, defence minister Jorge Mora and US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth signed an agreement on military cooperation. According to Hegseth, the new government asked the US to ‘join Colombia in its fight against narco-terrorism, authorising joint military operations to destroy terrorist and terror networks.' The alliance is titled the ‘Americas Counter Cartel Coalition.'
Colombia's defence ministry said ‘this decision reaffirms Colombia's commitment to a coordinated hemispheric response against terrorism, drugs trafficking, transnational organised crime and other threats that affect the security, the stability and the prosperity of our peoples.' Meanwhile, De la Espriella has said there will be no negotiations with armed groups and that he will exterminate drugs traffickers.
De la Espriella has also declared that Colombia will join Trump's ‘Shield of the Americas' initiative, the new security apparatus of conservative and right-wing governments across the Americas formed to, ostensibly, combat drugs trafficking, terrorism and foreign interference in the region. De la Espriella has promised to make the city of Medellin a regional hub for the initiative. However, many Colombian observers fear it that the initiative's main objective is actually to persecute political opponents and expand US interests under the guise of counter-narcotics.
In late July, Hegseth's deputy, Joseph M. Humire, announced the launch of ‘Plan Patriota 2.0', a follow-up to a first version from the 2000s that, according to Colombia's Truth Commission, ‘resulted in serious human rights violations'. Hours after De la Espriella's inauguration on 7 August, the US pledged $1 billion dollars in ‘security' aid. Given that past US ‘security' partnerships with Colombia have contributed significantly to major human rights abuses, social organisations and the political opposition have raised fears of a possible repetition of past experience.
The 2022 Truth Commission report found that, under the first Plan Patriota, US military aid continued despite the CIA being aware the army and its paramilitary accomplices were murdering trade unionists and activists. Today, as the US arbitrarily destroys small boats and labels opponents as complicit in ‘drugs trafficking' or ‘terrorism' without providing evidence, there appears little barrier to the Colombian government applying similar labels where and when it chooses. Trade unionists, activists, peasant leaders and students were routinely smeared and violently targeted during the armed conflict and there are widespread fears that this may happen again.
Furthermore, in the context of a new government that has said that multilateral institutions are no longer neutral and has raised the possibility of withdrawal from the United Nations and the OAS, there is likely to be a cavalier attitude towards legality and international humanitarian law. Under this government, the new alliance makes it more likely that abuses may again become prevalent. Indeed, military operations since De la Espriella's inauguration have already claimed their first civilian victims.
The new agreement therefore raises many questions and concerns. While De la Espriella's government argues that this realignment is intended to defend Colombian sovereignty from drugs cartels and ‘terrorists', Iván Cepeda, the leader of the progressive Historic Pact party in the Senate has criticised the plans for doing the opposite, stating that ‘the sovereignty of Colombia cannot be negotiated, it cannot be handed over and it cannot be subordinated to the military interests of any foreign power.' This, he argues, would be the result of the deployment of foreign troops without oversight, or control from Colombian institutions.
