As the end of his presidential term is approaching, Colombian President Gustavo Petro urges the sin to sign major strategic decisions, to reaffirm that his passage of Colombia’s presidential history is considered a blow to the Colombian-American alliance that lasted for two centuries. And here he is preparing to restore matters in a close electoral battle, whose indicators are settled to fold the Petro page.
The latest of these decisions is what the Colombian President made at the fourth ministerial meeting of the China-Silak Forum (Latin American and Caribbean Group), which was held in Beijing in the middle of this month, where he signed his country officially joining the “New Silk Road” initiative, officially known as “Belt and Road”.
This decision was reinforced with a clear challenge message for Washington, as it demanded it immediately after signing to deal with Colombia as two ally on the “peer of peer” base.
The White House was only that a response immediately, through a tweet issued by the Western Half Affairs Office, in which he threatened that the United States would definitely refuse to provide any future support to Colombia, and promised to disrupt the extension of the Colombian government with the remaining loan segments of international and regional financial institutions, if it shows the relationship of these loans- from near or far- with development projects and infrastructure supervised by China. The tweet added that opening the doors of Colombia to China in this way “threatens the security of the region.”
The threat was not really limited to Colombia, but explicitly included Chile, Argentina, Uruguay and Peru, Ecuador and Brazil, by saying: “In no way, financial institutions may not use American taxpayers to support Chinese companies in the hemisphere in which we live”, knowing that the number of Latin American countries that join the “belt initiative” The road “has reached 21 countries.
The official joining of Colombia to the Chinese initiative this month, coinciding with President Petro, is the temporary presidency of the Celac Forum, as the “second slap” that Washington receives from President Petro in less than four months, after the diplomatic crisis resulting from his lack of permission to land the military planes loaded with irregular migrants in “humiliating” circumstances, which the American administration had sent by order From President Trump last January, as part of the forced deportation program he inaugurated at the beginning of his second term.
President Trump’s Special Envoy to Latin America, Mauricio Karuni, told a number of sanctions on Colombia, and Washington soon retracted. And today it is returning to the Colombian public opinion against President Petro, by waving to stop importing coffee and Colombian flowers, and replacing them with the products of her neighbor Ecuador.
These threats succeeded in the days of the diplomatic crisis, in support of the Colombian opposition speech, but the usual customs duties imposed by the American President on most imports to his country gained the efficacy of this speech, especially with the Chinese president welcoming the Colombian products, and promised to open his vast markets for them, along with other promises of Colombia to expand cooperation in areas such as trade, infrastructure and energy New and artificial intelligence.
Initially, this was confirmed by the Chinese president during the forum held, to provide his country a loan of 66 billion yuan (9.2 billion dollars) to the ten present countries, to enhance development in the region.
The speeches of the heads of the countries of the region, especially the heads of Brazil, Chile, and Colombia, have unanimously agreed on the importance of the independence of their countries ‘decisions in choosing the economic ally freely, in a way that serves the interest of all parties, and without prejudice to the value of sovereignty, in reference to the United States’ “transformative” over the countries of Latin America, especially with the return of the Trump administration to repeat the principle of “Monroe” Doctrine) – “America for Americans” – as a slogan for the stage.
In this context, President Petro said: “The practices that some countries adopt to achieve unilateral gains do not lead to the interest of the world, and all countries must join hands to confront this,” in a sign that the eye does not mistake to the style of managing the White House.
Whatever the motives behind the “rebellion” of most countries of the region on the American threats about the lack of driving behind the opening of larger spaces to strengthen the Chinese presence in the western continent, the escape from the American administration has become a reality that reflects the numbers over the past two decades.
During which China succeeded in removing the United States from the first rank in the list of economic partners of two -thirds of the southern countries of the continent, to replace it, including Argentina under the rule of right -wing President Javier Millie.
As for Colombia, which tried to “modesty” during the era of former right-wing President Ivan Duche (2018-2022), he tried to strengthen its relationship with China, it has now decided its decision quickly that may return to Petal to President Petro after the end of his election period in the summer of 2026.
It may seem to some that the setback that China received two months ago in Panama stands behind this urgency, but the truth is that the decision to link the Colombian port of Boinnoonora, which is on the Pacific Ocean, to the Chinese international ports, had entered into force before the date of the Panama government made its decision with American dictates, and the port of Cartagena, northern Colombia, had preceded it in the step.
It should be noted here that Colombia has always represented an attractive point for China’s ambitions, given that the coast of Colombia extends over the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean together, and the distance between its international ports is Luxor compared to the countries of the south of the continent, in the event of a railway extending with high technical specifications linking the ports north and west.
At a time when China has succeeded, for nearly twenty years, in creating strong economic alliances with Latin American countries and the Caribbean region by adopting the “long breath” policy, which will make it a nearing achievement of $ 500 billion as a trade -off volume with those countries by the end of this year, the United States is still proceeding with the policy of metaphors, orders and blatant interference in the internal political and economic affairs of these countries, As a condition to determine the volume of exchange with it.
The opinions in the article do not necessarily reflect the editorial position of Al -Jazeera.