President Trump's efforts to combat the Colombia drug trade, spanning his first term from 2017 to 2021 and continuing in his aggressive second term, represent a deeply flawed revival of the failed "war on drugs" approach. Colombia remains the world's leading cocaine producer, supplying nearly 70 percent of the U.S. market and fueling violence, corruption, and overdose deaths. Trump's strategy has relied on unilateral pressure, militarized tactics, and public shaming of Colombian leaders, while overlooking root causes such as rural poverty, U.S. drug demand, and the need for comprehensive social investment. This approach strains relations with a key democratic ally, perpetuates a prohibitionist framework that evidence shows has failed for decades, and generates short-term headlines at the expense of sustainable progress. It also exacerbates the very conditions that sustain the coca economy.
During his first term, Trump inherited Plan Colombia, a $14 billion U.S.-funded initiative launched in 2000 that combined counter-narcotics operations, counterterrorism, and development aid. He intensified supply-side aggression by publicly criticizing Presidents Juan Manuel Santos and Ivn Duque for rising coca cultivation, which grew from 188,000 hectares in 2016 to a record 245,000 hectares by 2019. Trump pushed for the resumption of aerial fumigation with glyphosate, banned in Colombia since 2015 due to environmental and health risks, and demanded a surge in manual eradication, which increased by 57.7 percent by 2020. He also threatened decertification under the annual Major Illicit Drug-Producing Countries list to pressure compliance. Despite these measures, coca cultivation and cocaine production reached historic highs under his watch, with production rising 59 percent to 1,228 metric tons. The failure stems from the "balloon effect," where forced eradication displaces farmers without providing viable economic alternatives, allowing cultivation to rebound elsewhere. Trump's simultaneous cuts to foreign aid, reducing development funding by up to 75 percent in some areas, further weakened the non-military components of Plan Colombia.
In his second term, Trump has escalated his approach amid tensions with President Gustavo Petro, elected in 2022, whose "Total Peace" policy emphasizes negotiations, crop substitution, and interdiction over fumigation. On September 15, 2025, Trump issued the first decertification of Colombia since 1997, citing Petro's policies for allowing cultivation to reach 253,000 hectares, though he waived penalties for "national interest." Weeks later, on October 19, he labeled Petro an "illegal drug leader," cut $377 million in aid, and threatened tariffs. On October 24, the Treasury Department sanctioned Petro, his family, and cabinet members for allegedly enabling cartels. The administration has also authorized U.S. Navy strikes on narco-vessels and discussed bombing coca labs in Venezuela. This escalation reflects personal vendetta rather than strategy, especially since Petro's government has increased cocaine interdictions and maintained extraditions at 15-year highs while prioritizing voluntary substitution programs proven more effective in the long term.
The indictment of Trump's policy is multifaceted. First, decades of U.S.-backed eradication, including under Trump, have failed to reduce cocaine availability, purity, or street prices in the United States, while the real overdose crisis now centers on fentanyl from Mexico and China, not Colombian coca. Second, sanctions and aid cuts undermine security cooperation, intelligence sharing, and anti-corruption efforts, potentially empowering criminal groups and regional adversaries like Venezuela. Third, forced eradication and the push for fumigation violate human rights, displace communities, poison ecosystems, and endanger civilians, including the recent deaths of 13 police officers in eradication operations. Fourth, Trump ignores U.S. responsibility: prohibition inflates cartel profits, while domestic treatment and prevention remain underfunded despite over 80,000 annual overdose deaths.
An effective alternative would abandon decertification and coercion in favor of partnership. The U.S. should invest over $1 billion in rural development aligned with Colombia's 2016 peace accords, expand addiction treatment programs proven to reduce demand by more than 50 percent, support Petro's interdiction and extradition successes without public humiliation, and pursue global drug policy reform. Portugal's decriminalization model, for example, reduced HIV infections and overdose deaths by 95 percent through health-focused interventions. In conclusion, Trump's campaign against Colombia's drug trade embodies an obsession with dominance over evidence. By alienating a reform-minded government and doubling down on failed tactics, he ensures the drug war's continuation at immense human and diplomatic cost. True security requires equity, cooperation, and courage to reform prohibition, not unilateral bullying of a sovereign partner.
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