Colombia's candidates and the United States Share This /

Colombians go to the polls today for the first round of voting to elect a new president. Here is a quick overview of what each of the major candidates has said on the record about Colombia’s relations with the United States.

Antanas Mockus, Green Party

Favors the 2009 defense agreement with the United States. Proposes to rethink drug policy through a “broad national debate.” Supports the U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement signed in 2006.

• “While he considered that ‘there are reasons to privilege the relationship with the United States,’ Mockus said he was ‘disposed to understand new facets’ of Colombian foreign policy.” (Source)
• “With respect to the presence of U.S. soldiers on Colombian bases, Mockus said he is in agreement with the accord, and that Colombia needs the United States to fight narcotrafficking.” (Source)
• “Mockus, the former Bogotá mayor, didn’t refer in today’s debate to the agreement with the United States, but on other occasions he has defended it, though with the nuance that all guarantees must be given, above all to neighboring countries, that the U.S. military personnel will not use the bases for purposes different than what was agreed.” (Source)
• “I would like a certain stepping back from current anti-drug policy so that Colombian society can explore all the implications of drug trafficking: the supposed benefits for some sectors and the costs borne by youth, the environment, the justice system and institutions. No one is going to resolve the problem of drug trafficking but Colombians.” (Source)
• “Narcotrafficking doesn’t work for Colombia. We are going to shake narcotrafficking off of us. From that point we’ll be able to rethink Plan Colombia and adjust it. The message is that only Colombians can meaningfully contribute to ending the problem. We may need foreign aid, but nobody is going to fundamentally resolve the problem for us. We have to do it ourselves.” (Source)
• “Regarding fumigations, the Green Party candidate, Antanas Mockus, proposed that Plan Colombia should continue while a broad national debate occurs that would lead to the eradication of illegal crops through social pressure.” (Source)
• “The Free Trade Agreement organizes interdependence, helps us to specialize, and favors long-term investments. At the same time, it makes it possible to clarify which labor sectors in the United States would benefit from trade with Colombia.” (Source)
• “The United States should not dictate our relations with Venezuela, and Venezuela should not dictate our relations with the United States.” (Source)

Rafael Pardo, Liberal Party

Opposes the 2009 defense agreement with the United States. Opposes aerial fumigation of coca crops. Supports the U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement.

• “In July, Rafael Pardo, Colombia’s former defense minister, called the agreement analogous to ‘lending the balcony of your apartment to someone from outside so that he can keep watch of the neighbors.’” (Source)
• “Manual eradication should be maintained, accompanied by development programs. Plan Colombia has not defeated narcotrafficking.” (Source)
• “The Liberal Party aspirant, Rafael Pardo, said that to eradication he would add ‘an incentive payment in zones of coca cultivation to fight the narcos, and more social investment.” (Source)
• “The negotiation of the FTA is already finished. Its approval brings benefits for the country, and I have always been in favor of well-negotiated treaties, which benefit all sectors of the country.” (Source)

Gustavo Petro, Alternative Democratic Pole

Opposes the 2009 defense agreement with the United States. Opposes aerial fumigation of coca crops. Opposes the U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement.

• “He declared himself to be against the broadening of the military cooperation accord with the United States. … He said that it ‘wasn’t valid’ because the Congress wasn’t consulted and because it violated constitutional principles.” (Source)
• “Petro said he considers that the current [drug] policy shifts around, but does not solve, the problem, while ‘narcotraffickers embrace governors, mayors and enter the Casa de Nariño [Colombian presidential palace] through the basement.” (Source)
• “Fumigation doesn’t guarantee that coca will disappear, it just displaces the problem to other territories. The problem is attacked with more social fairness.” (Source)
• “Instead of insisting blindly on its approval, we must seek the renegotiation of this FTA. To create a new treaty with fair terms for the nation, especially with regard to labor rights, the agricultural sector and the environment. The FTAs that become treaties to protect investment or that include unfair trade terms, should be denounced.” (Source)

Noemí Sanín, Conservative Party

Supports the 2009 defense agreement with the United States. Would maintain aerial fumigation of coca crops but supports rethinking drug policy. Supports the U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement.

• “Noemí Sanín said that the issue of the bases with the United States was already over, she recalled that Brazil signed one without complaints from any neighbor, and said she would not accept any country giving opinions about the agreements that she would sign.” (Source)
• “Noemí Sanín spoke fo the need for an alternative and integral agricultural policy and concluded that ‘fumigation is a lesser evil.’” (Source)
• “With the FTA many jobs will be created. These agreements open permanent new markets to our exports and assure us more foreign investment, more better-paid jobs, and the incorporation of new technology. I won’t just insist on the FTA with the United States, but also with other countries.” (Source)

Juan Manuel Santos, “La U” Party

Supports the 2009 defense agreement with the United States. Supports aerial fumigation of coca crops. Supports the U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement.

• “Cooperation with the United States ‘is necessary’ and the military accord signed late last year does not contain ‘any threat against any third country,’ Santos emphasized.” (Source)
• “[The defense cooperation agreement with the United States] is not a treaty, but an accord, and thus doesn’t need to be approved by Congress.” (Source)
• “The [military] accord ‘gives order’ to what was already being done under Plan Colombia, it is ‘a legal umbrella,’ Santos maintained.” (Source)
• “Juan Manuel Santos, of ‘La U,’ responded that coca crops are a security problem, which must be fought with fumigations and manual eradication.” (Source)
• “Santos will seek ‘to revive’ the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between Colombia and the United States.” (Source)

Germán Vargas Lleras, Radical Change Party

Supports the 2009 defense agreement with the United States. Supports aerial fumigation of coca crops. Supports the U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement.

• “The candidate of Radical Change, Germán Vargas Lleras, also defended the [defense cooperation] agreement and affirmed that, regardless of whether it is ‘popular’ or not, it is Colombia’s ‘best instrument to dissuade’ neighbors from ‘an eventual aggression.’” (Source)
• “The current [drug] policy has yielded important results that must be maintained and deepened, that’s why I’ll continue with eradication and fumigation.” (Source)
• “Free Trade Agreements allow us to reach higher levels of development. That’s why it will be a priority to keep working bilaterally for the approval of the Free Trade Agreement with the United States. Colombia can’t give itself the luxury of wasting the enormous opportunity represented by a market of 300 million people.” (Source)