The decision of the Colombian Government to break diplomatic relations with its counterpart in Argentina, due to the accusations of President Javier Milei against his counterpart Gustavo Petro, became one more chapter of what could be considered the failure of the foreign relations policy of the Executive, which continues to crack in just 20 months of mandate; despite the fact that it has recovered presence in the border country of Venezuela, after years of rupture.
Petro has failed to consolidate diplomatic ties with some of its neighbors, in a succession of adverse decisions and controversial confrontations that have reduced its position. A crisis that begins, among others, with an internal matter: the suspension of Foreign Minister Álvaro Leyva Durán, for not effectively resolving the controversial tender for the issuance of passports, which removed him from office, since January 24, by the Attorney General’s Office.
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Although before that event, which would only be a small sample of the collapse of the dynamics of diplomacy, in which the Argentine ambassador Gustavo Dzugala was expelled from the country, and will force the departure of Camilo Romero from Buenos Aires, The president faced a series of events from which there is still no way out.
That generates special attention with the closeness, for example, with the regime of Nicolás Maduro and its late pronouncement on the alleged violations of democracy and human rights that have been registered against the opposition. Just like the commercial exchange that it has insisted on promoting, among others, with the intention of buying crude oil and gas from the state-owned PDVSA.
One of them: the dismissal of his diplomatic corps in Mexico, despite good relations with President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, with another judicial decision: that of the Council of State, which “knocked down” its ambassador, Moisés Ninco, and two of its consuls, Andrés Hernández, in Mexico City, and María Soledad Garzón –sister of Jaime Garzón–, from Cancún. The three, because above them there were people with the experience to fill the positions.
In Peru, for its part, his dispute with President Dina Boluarte, who assumed power following the dismissal of her friend, Pedro Castillo, has the Inca country without an ambassador in Colombia. Since March 2023, Lima withdrew its representative, Félix Denegri Boza, due to what would be “the repeated interventionist and offensive expressions” of Petro, who according to Boluarte “insists on distorting reality”, after the alleged coup d’état of the 7th December 2022 in your country.
Although diplomatic personnel have remained in the country since then and the vice-chancellors of both countries, Ignacio Higueras and Francisco Coy, the diplomatic channel is going through a crisis due to the Colombian Government’s lack of knowledge about the legitimacy of the Peruvian president. It should be noted that Petro did not appoint an ambassador in this country, so the situation has been assumed by career civil servant Eufracio Morales, as chargé d’affaires.
For its part, in Chile, until a week ago, the person responsible for this agency – at least in the information registered in the Foreign Ministry – was René Correa Rodríguez, another diplomatic service official; nevertheless, the digital strategist of the Petro Presidente campaign, the controversial Sebastián Guanúmenwho had been serving as consul in Santiago, but whose resume already rests on the platform of the Administrative Department of the Presidency (Dapre) to be named as the full holder of the position.
Now, Milei’s qualifiers, who called in an interview with Cnn in Spanish Petro as a “terrorist murderer”, provoked a new front of dispute with a country in the region, as it was the episode that gave rise to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to break relations with the representative of a country whose ruler is unrelated to its political project. And it came with a strong mix of accusations, in which the Colombian president even compared Milei to dictators like Adolf Hitler, and in response they reminded him of the subversive past.
In the midst of this complex panorama with the world, Petro has also engaged in tough fights with other nations, perhaps the most representative being Israel: by announcing that he would be willing – not on one, but on at least three occasions – to break relations with that country, if it does not suspend the military offensive against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip. Even since October 2023, when conflict broke out due to the group’s terrorist attack Hamashas had a “tug of war” with the diplomat of that state in Colombia, Gali Dagan.
Added to this are the intersections on social networks with presidents like Nayib Bukele, from El Salvador, who after the accusations against him has given Petro “where it hurts the most”: in the accusations against his son, Nicolás, who has been accused by the Attorney General’s Office of money laundering. assets and illicit enrichment. Likewise, in her international appearances, such as at the United Nations (UN) and other venues, he has attacked Western powers, such as the United States and France.
There is no ambassador in Germany either, since the person in charge is Jorge Hernán Jaramillo, as head of the Berlin consulate. The same in Australia, with Javier Ricardo Parada; in China, by Andrés Salas López, and in Brazil, with Diana Marcela Prado; in the most striking cases. While, in countries like France, the United Kingdom and Belgium, to name a few cases, he has appointed people close to his mandate, such as Álvaro Prada, Roy Barreras and Jorge Rojas.
While this is happening, It is valid to remember that in February 2024 the opening of nine embassies was confirmed, the reactivation of representation before the FAO, led by Armando Benedetti, former representative of the Colombian Government to Venezuela, and the appointment of at least 116 new diplomatic officials; in a million-dollar investment that would exceed $55,000 million per year. All this for a ministry that is in charge of the Colombian ambassador to the United States, Luis Gilberto Murillo.
