The Mexican president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, reported this Thursday that he will meet in Colombia to discuss the proposal to change the paradigm of the fight against drugs that his Colombian counterpart, Gustavo Petro, made on his recent visit to the country, although he did not He specified the date of the meeting.
“President Gustavo Petro has a proposal, he outlined it, and announced the general guidelines. The idea is to pay more attention to prevention, to prevent people, especially young people, out of necessity, from engaging in these illegal activities,” said the Mexican president.
In his wheel daily press, López Obrador said that Petro invited him to Colombia to talk about said proposal.
“I accepted and we agreed to meet. It is probable that the meeting will be in Colombia”, he highlighted.
Although he did not define the date, he estimated that it could take place after the Summit of North American Leaders that will take place in Mexico with President Joe Biden of the United States and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada, on January 9 and 14.
In addition, he said that apparently the Colombian president’s intention is to invite other presidents from Latin America and the Caribbean, including Chile’s Gabriel Boric and Ecuador’s Guillermo Lasso, although he acknowledged that he has not neither the date of the meeting nor the agenda have been defined.
However, he remembered that they will see each other next 29 December in Lima, Peru, where they will meet to deliver the presidency of the Pacific Alliance to the Peruvian Pedro Castillo.
The Mexican president affirmed that Petro “brings a very well articulated approach, thought out and will analyze his proposal well” regarding the fight against drugs.
He assured that Colombia has a lot of experience on the damage caused by drug trafficking because “they have made plans and they know what can help to deal with the cultivation of, in this case, coca and drug trafficking.”
He announced that he agrees with the plan put forward by Petro.
“We agree that it is important to see it, not only with the vision of the United States but to see it from the vision of Latin America”, he pointed out.
He stressed that this does not mean confrontation with the US government, but to analyze how this problem could be dealt with without violence.
“More effective ways must be found to deal with the problems of organized crime, drug trafficking and attend to the causes, not just solve things or try to solve things with coercive measures, there are plans that can help”, he said.