President of Colombia asks the US to remove Cuba from the terrorist list | News

The President of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, who received on Monday in Bogotá the Secretary of State of the United States (USA), Anthony Blinken, asked the Government of that country to remove Cuba from the list of nations that sponsor terrorism.

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At a press conference, the president commented: "in this meeting I said that what had happened with Cuba is an injustice", because -he recalled- in past years a Colombian government asked that Caribbean nation to host negotiations with the ELN and the FARC, with an oversight of the administration of then US President Barack Obama.

“Then another Colombian government asked another government of the United States, that of (Donald) Trump, that because the FARC and ELN were in Cuba, they would declare it a country that stimulated terrorist activities,” he added.

"That is called an injustice and, therefore, in my opinion - it does not depend on us - it must be corrected," Petro said.

Blinken, for his part, declared that his country will keep Cuba in that category.

US Backs Petro's Anti-Drug Fight

On other topics, Petro explained that in his meeting with Blinken they discussed "joint cooperation on climate change, a true drug policy and the fight against corruption."

"We will strengthen the relationship between the United States and Colombia in these comprehensive projects," the head of state said on his Twitter account.

Blinken, for his part, said he supported the fight against drugs proposed by Petro, which is characterized by fighting "the real drug traffickers," who are in the cities, and not the peasants who grow coca leaves.

"With Secretary Blinken we talked about issues such as drug trafficking, a traditional issue on the binational agenda, but this time from a different perspective; I would call it more flexible and with a more comprehensive vision of the problem of drug consumption and production in this continent," pointed out the Colombian ruler.

"We want to make substantial changes. Until very recently, the repressive policy on drug trafficking was to fumigate all peasant producers with glyphosate. This is no more, this is prohibited in Colombia by the Constitutional Court," he said.

Petro also advocated a regularization program for the thousands of Colombian migrants who are in US territory.