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Every country seeks to prevent its name from being used as a boxing pear in another nation’s electoral campaign. Especially if it is the USA, where these days the polarization is extreme and the war between the parties, almost to the death.
But that, precisely, is what has happened to Colombia in this final stretch of the contest between Donald Trump and Joe Biden.
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For some time now, and as the candidates have focused on the crucial Florida vote, the rhetoric and the attacks have risen to the idea that the vote of Colombian Americans could tip the balance.
Trump’s strategy has been to paint Biden as a socialist who wants to impose “Castro-Chavism” on the United States. And he mentions Gustavo Petro’s support as proof of his alliances with the “radical left”.
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Biden has defended himself by saying that he is not a socialist and that the Castro-Chavista is Trump, because he behaves like an autocrat when he refuses a peaceful transition of power, aligns himself with dictators of the world and is attacking fundamentals of democracy, such as the right to vote and the separation of powers.
The situation is very unusual, although it is not new. Many remember a similar moment during the 2008 campaign, when support for the free trade agreement with the country briefly became a campaign issue for Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.
On this occasion, the target has been the support of the Colombian and Hispanic community in Florida and using the polarization of the electorate as a tool, through issues that are more typical of national politics, such as “Castro-Chavism”. And in that, says Michael Shifter, president of the Inter-American Dialogue, the main person in charge is the US president.
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“Trump wants to win Florida and to achieve it he is scaring Cuban, Colombian and American voters with the story that with Biden there will be another Venezuela in the US. That is unprecedented, but it is a tactic he always uses,” says Shifter.
According to this analyst, the other thing that has been different are the reports that Colombian officials have taken sides in favor of Trump. Something that, he says, has caused discomfort among Democrats.
Taking sides and getting into our elections is only causing resentment and hindering bipartisan consensus
“Colombia needs the US Congress, where Democrats have majorities, to approve aid for the country. Taking sides and getting into our elections is only causing resentment and hinders bipartisan consensus, ”Congressman Rubén Gallego, the only Colombian elected to Congress in the United States, told this newspaper.
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Things got to such a point that the US ambassador in Bogotá, Philip Goldberg, this week asked national politicians not to interfere in the electoral process in his country and a political control hearing was held in the Colombian Senate.
“This may have a marginal effect on the environment, but not on the bottom. Colombia has a long history of close relations with the US, and that will not change given the country’s importance to regional politics. Biden himself has said that his great objective in foreign policy is to strengthen alliances that have suffered under Trump and Colombia is a natural ally ”, Shifter states.
With Biden, who is one of the original promoters of Plan Colombia two decades ago, he would continue to support the fight against drug trafficking and the implementation of the peace accords.
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“Trump emphasized Venezuela and the fight against drugs. Under the former vice president, US policy would be more balanced and would include other issues such as human rights, climate change and democracy, ”says Shifter. Trump, if reelected, would also emphasize a program that he has just created (Colombia Crece) and that has made US $ 5 billion in loans available to investors who want to finance development projects in conflict zones. But there is a risk, and it is considerable.
According to Shifter, if anything characterizes Trump, it is his unpredictable nature. “The policies of this president respond to his own interests. Once his re-election is no longer involved, he can say that he wants a meeting with Maduro, or that he plans to decertify Colombia in the fight against drugs. Or that he plans to put new tariffs on Colombian products and renegotiate the free trade agreement, “he says.
Something that Iván Duque himself experienced last year, when Trump, wanting to show firmness in the fight against drugs, said that the Colombian president had “done nothing” to help the US on this front. An unthinkable scenario under a Biden or any other Republican administration.
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The country is also likely to simply get off its priority agenda, as Trump has made it clear that his emphasis is on domestic politics.
In fact, in his four years as president, he always tried to cut the aid that is given annually to Colombia and if this was maintained it was because the Congress, in a bipartisan way, wanted it to. Another argument, says Dan Restrepo, of the Center for American Progress, for the Colombian government and the parties in the country to give bilateral politics a long-term vision that includes both Democrats and Republicans.
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WASHINGTON
In other news
– Joe Biden and Donald Trump, fighting for Florida voters
– The United States enters the elections with extreme polarization
– ‘If Latinos go out to vote, the distribution of power will change’
