Colombia Buys In: Trump's Billion Has a Price
Colombia remains the world's largest cocaine producer, accounting for roughly 90 percent of the cocaine that enters the United States, per DEA estimates.
The Trump administration has committed $1 billion in security assistance to Colombia as newly sworn-in President Abelardo De La Espriella — a Trump ally and rightwing populist — takes office pledging what he calls a "profound transformation" of the country's destiny, according to The Guardian.
The timing is not coincidental. De La Espriella replaces Gustavo Petro, the leftist former guerrilla who spent four years in open friction with Washington over drug policy and extradition. The ideological rotation is complete, and the billion dollars is both a reward and an instruction manual.
Colombia remains the world's largest cocaine producer, accounting for roughly 90 percent of the cocaine that enters the United States, per DEA estimates. The new administration has vowed an aggressive crackdown — the kind Washington has funded before, in different administrations, with different presidents, and with results that have never matched the promise.
What changes hands alongside the money matters as much as the money itself. Security assistance in the region has historically meant military equipment, intelligence-sharing, and training — tools that follow the politics of whoever is holding them. Whether that billion reaches the cartels or the communities depends entirely on who is doing the distributing, and who is never in the room when the contracts are signed.
De La Espriella has one powerful friend. Colombia has one billion reasons to stay that way.
