The United States has announced that he was recalling his business on Bogota for emergency consultations. Colombia responds with the same currency
Marco Rubio, US Secretary of State, during his hearing by the Senate to confirm, in January, photo: Lenin Nolly / Sipa Press / Profimedia Images
The United States announced on Thursday that they are recalling their business on Bogota for “emergency consultations”, invoking concerns about deteriorating relations with Colombia, AFP reports.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio “Request in Washington on John T. McNamara, in charge of interim business of the United States Embassy in Colombia, for urgent consultations following unfounded and reprobable statements issued from the highest level of the Colombian government,” said his spokesman, Tammy Bruce.
The spokesman did not specify what “unfounded statements” caused indignation in Washington, but Colombian President Gustavo Petro accused the United States and “people of extreme right” in June of preparing a coup against him, resuming an accusation made by his Venezuelan counterpart, Nicolas Maduro, notes AFP.
Colombia has recently announced that it “suspends” the extradition to the United States of officials of armed groups participating in peace negotiations with the government, even if this would mean deteriorating relationships already tense with Washington.
Following the announcement by Washington, Colombian President Gustavo Petro said he was recalling Colombia's ambassador to the country, Daniel García-Peña.
According to Reuters, in a wide post on the X platform, Petro said that the diplomat will return to discuss the bilateral agenda of the two countries, mentioning as priorities climate cooperation, the fight against drug trafficking and migration policy.
The Colombian Foreign Ministry said that Laura Sarabia, who announced her resignation as minister on Thursday, “is in contact with the United States as long as she stays in office, until a new foreign minister will take care of this matter.”
Last month, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio criticized the Colombian government, after Senator Miguel Uribe, a possible candidate for Presidency and a member of the conservative opposition in the Democratic Center, was shot in Bogotá.
Rubio said that the attack on Uribe is “the result of the left -wing rhetoric that comes from the highest levels of the Colombian government.”
Uribe has undergone several major surgery after the attack and is in critical condition.
In January, Donald Trump and Gustavo Petro were open on Colombia's refusal to receive military planes carrying deporteed migrants. Trump then threatened with customs tariffs and sanctions, but the two countries finally managed to avoid a commercial war and overcome the blockage.
At that time, Gustavo Petro condemned military flights carrying deported migrants and said he would never organize a raid to send handcuffed Americans to the United States.
“We are the opposite of the Nazis,” he wrote in a post on the X platform.
Colombia is the third US -trading partner in Latin America. In turn, the United States is the main commercial partner of Colombia, largely due to a free-change agreement in 2006, which generated a bilateral trade of $ 33.8 billion and a commercial surplus for $ 1.6 billion, according to the data of the US Census Bureau.
