Colombia's President Speaks Against Current Global Anti-Drug Strategy

MEXICO CITY (Sputnik) - Colombian President Gustavo Petro says that the problem of drug trafficking has long gone beyond the framework of relations between Colombia and the United States, and the current strategy to combat it only increases crime.

"The investigation into the murder of the Paraguayan prosecutor Marcelo Pecci, committed by Uruguayan drug trafficker [Sebastian] Marset in Colombian territory, shows that drug trafficking has ceased to be a Colombian-American bilateral problem long ago and is today an American and world problem," Petro said on social media on Friday.

In June, Colombian police and prosecutors detained suspects in the murder of Marcelo Pecci, a Paraguayan special prosecutor known for fighting organized crime and drug trafficking. Pecci was on his honeymoon with his wife when he was murdered by gunmen on May 10 on the Colombian island of Baru.

Petro said on Friday that the strategy that has been used to fight drug trafficking up until now has only strengthened rather than weakened the mafia.

Petro, 62, took the presidential oath and was sworn in in a ceremony at Bolivar Square in Colombia’s capital, Bogota, last weekend. A former guerrilla and ex-mayor of Bogota, he is the first leftist leader in Colombia’s modern history.

Petro’s government has agreed to hold talks with the largest drug gang in Colombia, the Gulf Clan (Clan del Golfo, also known as Gaitanist Self-Defense Forces of Colombia), a major supplier of cocaine to the United States.

Last Sunday, the Gulf Clan announced a unilateral cessation of offensive hostilities as a gesture of goodwill to the new government of Colombia and determination to join the peace process.