As the U.S. ramps up its attacks on drug cartels out of Venezuela, it’s done serious harm to its relationship with Colombia, once considered its strongest and most reliable narcotics-fighting partner in Latin America.
Diplomatic relations between the U.S. and Colombia have taken a nosedive this year, starting with a spat over more aggressive U.S. deportations of Colombians and deteriorating further over the Trump administration’s continued killing of Latin American sailors in the Caribbean and Pacific who it says were trafficking drugs, without publicly producing evidence.
This international spat is now threatening to weaken Drug Enforcement Administration operations to destroy cocaine-producing coca crops and combat paramilitary cartels.