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This weekend President Donald Trump returned to Colombia, for the first time, an issue of the electoral campaign. He did it in Florida, where he attacked former Vice President Joe Biden for backing an agreement, the peace process, which in his opinion surrendered to narco-terrorism. Mentioning former President Juan Manuel Santos with his own name, Trump suggested that this agreement gave free rein to drug crops and that under his government, now in partnership with that of Iván Duque, this trend has been reversed.
(You may be interested in: Trump puts Colombia in his re-election campaign with attack on Petro)
EL TIEMPO spoke with Mark Feierstein, former National Security Advisor for the Western Hemisphere during the Barack Obama administration and considered one of the fathers of Paz Colombia, a plan to support the agreement.
How did you receive Trump’s attack on Biden with the Colombia peace agreement in the background?
It’s a sign of Trump’s desperation. He is losing the election and is trying to put all kinds of misinformation into the campaign. But I don’t think it will be successful. That is shown by the polls. In the case of Colombia, it has had bipartisan support for a long time, more than 20 years, and Biden was one of the creators of Plan Colombia and has always supported the country. And that support has been sustained by various administrations, both in the US and Colombia. And I hope that continues. That said, we have seen reports from Colombian officials involved in the campaign in Florida, and that is worrying. It would be a great mistake for Colombia to put at risk the bipartisan support that it has always had in the United States.
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Trump says his administration is now fighting drugs effectively in alliance with President Iván Duque, Santos’s successor.
Colombia has been facing this challenge for many, which is a combination of guerrilla groups and drug trafficking. And the US has been a strong stand behind them over the years. In the Barack Obama-Biden administration that was also the case, and if Biden is president that will continue.
Trump also accuses Biden of being a socialist and gave as an example the support that Colombian senator Gustavo Petro gave him. What is your reading?
It is an attack that even makes you laugh. There are many high-level Republicans who have come out publicly to endorse Biden. This Sunday, the former Republican governor of Pennsylvania came out to endorse Biden. Four or five of Republican President George Bush’s cabinet members also announced their support. Biden has been in politics for more than four decades and has always shown that he is a moderate, and people know it. In fact, he ran against the socialist in the Democratic race (Bernie Sanders) and beat that socialist. To suggest that Biden is something other than a moderate, pragmatic politician is a joke.
(Also read: Trump asks Biden to take a drug test before the debate)
So what is the strategy of the Republicans in putting Colombia into the presidential campaign?
They only have two ways to win. Through disinformation and suppression of the vote. They’re in the thick of it, trying to make it harder for Americans to vote, and they’ve already seen Trump’s attacks on vote-by-mail, despite the fact that it’s a totally legitimate way to vote. At the same time they misinform. Trump lies permanently and several times a day. Lie about Biden and Ukraine, lie about Biden and Colombia. It is one more thread in her web of lies.
You say that there are Colombian government officials who intercede for Trump. Apart from the accusations made in this regard by former President Santos and the assertions of some leaders of the Democratic Center, is there other evidence?
I neither work nor speak for the Biden campaign. And I can only speak to you as a former Obama-Biden administration official.
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But do you know the risk that implies?
Any inappropriate role in the election campaign of an official from another country is something that should concern all Americans. We have already seen the harsh and threatening response of Democratic Congressman Eliot Engel to something similar in Brazil and we have seen it with Mexico, where the government of that country, apparently, is not handling the relationship in a bipartisan way. And now there is concern for Colombia. The big mistake here would be for Colombia, because the country is seen as a model in many ways when it comes to maintaining a bipartisan approach throughout Republican and Democratic administrations and Colombian governments. And the actions of your country’s officials could potentially be putting that relationship at risk.
SERGIO GÓMEZ MASERI
EL TIEMPO correspondent
Washington
On twitter: @sergom68
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