Politico Kind Enough to Offer Colombian President Opportunity to Spew

In May, Colombians will choose a successor to President Gustavo Petro, the first leftist leader in the country’s modern history. The results of that election will cement — or erase — Petro’s legacy at home, where voters will choose from a field including leftist Iván Cepeda, conservative Paloma Valencia and far-right lawyer Abelardo Gabriel de la Espriella.

In his nearly four years in office, Petro has struggled to implement the full breadth of his reformist program; he’s also faced low approval ratings. But as Colombia’s global representative on the world stage, he’s had an outsized impact, with combative speeches at the United Nations attacking governments who “applaud genocide” in Gaza and fail to deliver climate action.

Petro, who is constitutionally barred from seeking a second term, has emerged as one of the sharpest critics of U.S. foreign policy and the War on Drugs — leading to a public feud with President Donald Trump, who called Petro a “sick man” who should “watch his ass.”

Trump has accused Petro of failing to clamp down on the cocaine trade and demanded aggressive action against the cartels. For his part, the Colombian leader has argued the best way to dismantle the gangs would be to legalize cocaine worldwide. As Colombians voted in a crucial legislative election Sunday, Petro travelled to Vienna to deliver a final message as President to U.N. drug officials: criminalization isn’t working.Ro