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| Caribbean-Latin America |
| Colombian Senator Paloma Valencia: ‘Fundamental' for U.S. to Help Fight Cocaine Boom |
| 2025-07-31 |
| [Breitbart] Growing threats to democracy in Colombia are being fueled in part by a cocaine boom under a Marxist president, Colombian Senator Paloma Valencia told Breitbart News on Wednesday, urging America to help fight the influence of criminal drug gangs. Valencia, a member of former President Álvaro Uribe’s conservative Democratic Center party, is running in the nation’s 2026 presidential election on a platform of continued energy independence — Colombia is a major fossil fuel exporter — as well as fighting organized crime and championing traditional values. Running for president as a conservative is a dangerous move in the country under leftist President Gustavo Petro, a hardline Marxist and proud former member of the M19 terrorist guerrilla group. During the Petro presidency, Uribe and other prominent conservatives have faced a growing wave of violence and persecution. Another member of the Democratic Center running for president, Miguel Uribe Turbay (no relation to Álvaro Uribe), was shot in the head by a child during a campaign event in June and remains hospitalized in critical condition. There has been no indication that he’s regained consciousness since being shot. “They attempted to assassinate one of our [presidential] candidates with a bullet to the head, and a month later we are debating whether to imprison President Uribe,” Valencia explained to Breitbart News. “Which is to say: what we are starting to see here is that this is not a coincidence and it is all part of like a strategy to destroy the political participation of the followers of President Uribe.” Álvaro Uribe was convicted on charges of abuse of procedure and bribery of a public official on Monday in a years-long legal process that both Valencia and senior members of the U.S. government have denounced as a sham. “This all has its origin in that one of the lawmakers closest to Petro, son of a revolutionary — indeed, he studied in the Soviet Union with a communist formation, who is Iván Cepeda,” Valencia explained. “He was visiting in prisons — and this was absolutely proven — looking for testimonies against President Uribe tying him to paramilitaries and offering judicial benefits in exchange for these testimonies that carried humanitarian benefits.” Uribe sued and publicly condemned Senator Iván Cepeda for allegedly seeking to bribe individuals to testify against him. The dispute began in 2012 and led to a Colombian court not only dismissing Uribe’s complaint, but launching an investigation into the former president for the same allegation. “What did President Uribe do? What anyone would do: find a lawyer to go verify what was going on in the prisons where people were saying this that I told you, that Senator Cepeda came to offer benefits in exchange for testimonies.” The Democratic Center party has confirmed that Uribe will appeal the conviction against him this week, but the court is expected to rule this week on whether to imprison him during the appeal process. Ex-President Uribe held office from 2002 to 2010, distinguishing himself as one of modern Colombia’s most successful presidents. His administration focused heavily on improving relations with the United States, cooperating with the administration of President George W. Bush to use counterterrorism tactics popularized in the Middle East in Colombia against the communist terrorists of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). He has since built up his Democratic Center as the primary conservative political party in the country. As a result of his success in dramatically diminishing the influence of the half-century-old communist guerrillas on the lives of civilians, Uribe has remained a major player in subsequent elections. More recently, the left-wing New York Times revealed in January that Uribe was instrumental in amending an unnecessary diplomatic crisis between Bogotá and Washington caused by Petro posting a long-winded rant attacking President Donald Trump for attempting to deport Colombians illegally present in his country. Uribe was called in after Petro’s own cabinet could not establish contact with him, according to the report. Petro’s former Foreign Minister Álvaro Leyva has since accused Petro, who regularly celebrates cocaine use in public, of suffering from drug addiction, allegations Petro has continuously denied including as recently as Tuesday. Valencia explained in her remarks to Breitbart News that several factors led to a dramatic change at the helm of the country from former President Iván Duque, a Democratic Center leader, to the Petro era. “This has an explanation, which is the pandemic, where people had a lot of frustration, but also the renewed influence of foreign powers that were involved in what Latin America has been called social blowups,” Valencia explained. “When you see the presence of the Russians in the Chilean and Colombian social blowups, you understand that this did not happen alone and that here there has been that interference.” “But above all, it is the democratic crisis in the world where people decide to vote for something new and in countries where people don’t know their story, people did not know very well what Petro had done or what he meant,” she added. Colombia experienced a wave of left-wing riots during the Duque era, beginning in 2019 but continuing despite Wuhan coronavirus lockdowns and other restrictions. Multiple subsequent investigations revealed that the CIA had reason to believe the Russian government was involved in some of the riots. A study by the Center for a Secure Free Society (SFS) published in 2021 found that thousands of online “troll accounts” were fueling anti-government sentiment, “managed by click farms in Bangladesh, Mexico, and Venezuela, possibly ran by servers in Russia and China.” Related: Colombia: 2025-07-29 And the Hits Just Keep on Coming:ActBlue under the microscope Colombia: 2025-07-29 Latin American gangs send recruits to Ukraine en masse Colombia: 2025-07-20 General Dima, window smasher David. How the Israelis robbed Russia of $300 million Related: Gustavo Petro 07/09/2025 Reports: Colombia's Leftist President Apologized to Trump Privately After Unhinged Rant Gustavo Petro 05/13/2025 Top Mexican politician is stunned to discover Trump has REVOKED visas for her and her husband Gustavo Petro 04/12/2025 Colombia taps anti-Zionist, unrecognized ‘rabbi’ as director of religious affairs |
| Posted by:Skidmark |
| #1 But what about Zelensky? |
| Posted by: Grom the Affective 2025-07-31 00:31 |