Colombia to maintain US intelligence-sharing to fight drug trafficking

The announcement comes aft President Petro said Colombia would halt moving with US implicit strikes connected alleged cause boats.

Officials successful Colombia accidental the state volition proceed to stock quality with planetary agencies combatting cause trafficking, conscionable days aft President Gustavo Petro said helium was suspending specified collaboration with the United States implicit attacks connected vessels successful planetary waters.

Colombian Defence Minister Pedro Arnulfo Sanchez said successful a societal media station connected Thursday that Petro had provided “clear instructions” to support a “continuous travel of information” with planetary agencies moving connected cause trafficking.

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“Against transnational crime, the reply is planetary cooperation,” Sanchez wrote connected X.

The country’s interior minister, Armando Benedetti, besides said successful a abstracted connection that determination had been “a misunderstanding” and Petro ne'er said that US information agencies would halt moving successful Colombia alongside their Colombian counterparts.

“We volition proceed moving arsenic this Government has done against cause trafficking and transgression with the United States,” Benedetti said connected societal media.

The evident about-face comes aft Petro — a left-wing person and vocal professional of US President Donald Trump — said connected Tuesday that an bid had been issued “to suspend communications and different dealings with US information agencies”.

Petro has been captious of a bid of deadly US attacks connected boats successful the Caribbean Sea that the Trump medication accused of smuggling amerciable drugs.

The strikes person prompted wide condemnation, with United Nations officials and different experts saying they magnitude to wide violations of planetary law.

“These attacks — and their mounting quality outgo — are unacceptable,” Volker Turk, the UN quality rights chief, said successful precocious October.

“The US indispensable halt specified attacks and instrumentality each measures indispensable to forestall the extrajudicial sidesplitting of radical aboard these boats, immoderate the transgression behaviour alleged against them.”

The Trump medication has rejected the criticism, saying its attacks successful the Caribbean and the Pacific purpose to deter cause traffickers. The US bombing campaign, which began successful September, has killed astatine slightest 76 radical to date.

Trump, without providing immoderate evidence, besides has accused Petro of being progressive successful cause trafficking, imposing sanctions connected the Colombian president and his household past month.

The Colombian person has, successful turn, called for Trump to beryllium investigated for warfare crimes linked to the attacks, which person affected citizens from Venezuela, Ecuador, Colombia and Trinidad and Tobago.

Petro besides has accused Washington of going aft peasants increasing coca, the basal constituent of cocaine, alternatively of targeting large cause traffickers and wealth launderers.

On Sunday, Petro said that helium met with the household of a Colombian fisherman who was allegedly killed successful 1 of the US strikes.

“He whitethorn person been carrying fish, oregon helium whitethorn person been carrying cocaine, but helium had not been sentenced to death,” Petro said during a acme betwixt Latin American and European leaders hosted by Colombia. “There was nary request to execution him.”

US quality outlet CNN reported earlier this week that the United Kingdom had suspended immoderate intelligence-sharing with the US implicit its strikes connected the boats successful the Caribbean.

But US Secretary of State Marco Rubio rejected that report. Without going into immoderate details oregon explaining what astir CNN’s reporting was inaccurate, Rubio told reporters connected Wednesday that the communicative was “fake”.