What’s behind the meeting between Trump and Petro?

After a month of panic in the Colombian press, 3 February finally arrived and passed. The meeting between Petro and Trump has been considered a great success and a demonstration of the merits of diplomacy and moderation. During a ‘special visit’ to the White House, Petro and Trump had a meeting lasting one hour and forty minutes, during which Trump ended up flattering the Colombian president, saying he was a “very nice guy.”

[Originally published in Spanish at colombiamarxista.com]

The entirety of the Colombian press, which a month ago predicted a disaster similar to the meeting between Trump and Zelensky, has come out to celebrate this ‘diplomatic success’, in which Petro left wearing a MAGA cap and carrying a signed copy of The Art of the Deal (the US President’s first book).

There is something strange about this image.

The maneuvers of the national oligarchy

Since last year, top representatives of the Colombian ruling class have been traveling to the United States to ask the Republican Party to increase pressure on Petro and openly beg for a military intervention. They are seeking something similar to ‘Operation Absolute Resolve’, which culminated in the deaths of 80 people in Caracas and the kidnapping of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.

This speaks volumes about the political weakness of the right at this time.

Álvaro Uribe Vélez (the top leader of the Colombian right to this day) left the Colombian presidency in 2010 with a formidable 85 percent approval rating. The current candidate for Uribe’s party, Paloma Valencia, is barely polling at 5 percent. The strongest right-wing candidate, Abelardo de la Espriella, is competing with the left’s candidate, Ivan Cépeda, but this is largely because he has deliberately broken with the unpopular establishment right wing, despite stressing that “my support for Uribismo is not in doubt. I am more of a Uribista than Doña Lina, Jerónimo, and Tomás.” [the names are family members of Uribe]

In this situation of domestic helplessness, it is understandable that the Colombian oligarchy is looking for a saviour outside Colombia who will allow them to return to the helm of the state machinery.

But these calls for US intervention in Colombia demonstrate their submissive character and further discredit them due to the unpopularity of US imperialism today. Not only that, it also reveals that behind all the nationalist rhetoric, the Colombian oligarchy is willing to sacrifice the Colombian working class on the altar of US imperialism in order to get a few more dollars.

Indeed, it demonstrates their servile character.

But what has Petro done in the face of these treasonous threats?

The embrace of the jaguar and the eagle

Petro and Trump have clashed over issues central to Petro’s political project for over a year. Petro has gained international political authority by criticising US imperialism, such as his presentation at the UN calling for military intervention against the genocide in Gaza, his call in the streets of New York for the US army to disobey Trump’s orders, as well as his call for a national strike to achieve the approval of his proposed labour reform in the Colombian Congress.

However, in the last month, deportation flights (the trigger for the initial clash between Petro and Trump) from the US to Colombia, alongside glyphosate spraying of coca plantations, have resumed. The Minister of the Interior, Armando Benedetti, has also proposed collaboration between the US and Colombian armed forces to attack the guerrilla group ELN. Every single one is a concession to US imperialism.

At the start of the year Petro mobilised millions across Colombia in demonstrations against the threat of US imperialism, going as far as calling for the general arming of the masses. This shows the reformists’ general problem of using the masses as a tap they turn on and off according to their needs. The masses cannot be on a permanent war footing and go out on mobilisations without a political programme to fight for.

Without a programme of action that proposes how to lead the struggle against imperialism and the national oligarchy, the masses will eventually go home and will not vote for the reformists again for a long time.

These concessions reflect the limits of reformism and are very similar to the concessions Claudia Sheinbaum in Mexico has made to Trump. Behind the radical veneer, there is a clear policy of giving the imperialists key concessions on security issues in order to maintain trade relations.

Turning defeats into victories

It must be said that these concessions are not entirely illogical. The pressure from US imperialism against Petro has been substantial. From his inclusion on the Clinton list (accusing him of involvement in the global drug trade) to the military presence of 20 percent of the US navy in the Caribbean Sea, it is clear that the White House’s threats are backed by the greatest military force on the planet.

But Petro is not just any reformist. He is a reformist who has presented himself as a revolutionary and an anti-imperialist. And the duty of every revolutionary is to tell the truth.

The truth is this: the reformists are offering these concessions to US imperialism because they see no other way out and accept that it is necessary to govern within the margins of the capitalist system. They rely on trade with the US and are afraid of the very real threat of US invasion.

Behind all the grandiloquent calls for world revolution, Petro fundamentally believes the only way to solve Colombia’s backwardness is through capitalist development. But the reality is Colombian capitalism can only exist as it does today: submissive to the interests of the White House, due to its deep integration with the US economy.

In this sense, the government’s stance of presenting these concessions as great triumphs of a magnificent statesman – who has managed to put aside his personal positions in the name of representing national interests – fosters illusions in the possibility of negotiating on equal terms with the most powerful reactionary force on the planet.

Ultimately, the point is that these concessions are acceptable only if it is understood that the US ruling class will not sit idly by and accept them as sufficient. Over the past year, Trump has made 180-degree turns in which he appears to calm down on issues such as Ukraine or the government of Nicolás Maduro, only to then take action against them.

It is clear Trump and his clique will intervene in the Colombian presidential elections this May in some way, as they did in Argentina and Honduras. The real variable is which of Uribismo’s broken toys will be promoted to the role of US imperialism’s main puppet.

Colombia can never be truly free as long as its economy is subjugated to the interests of US multinationals / Image: public domain

However, they also want to avoid increasing Petro’s popularity in a similar way to how their interventions in Canada guaranteed Mark Carney’s victory over the overtly-Trumpian Conservative Party.

To do this, they have had to put direct pressure on Petro to implement fewer inflammatory proposals, such as the Constituent Assembly.

The struggle against imperialism

Colombia can never be truly free as long as its economy is subjugated to the interests of US multinationals.

Petro’s political programme can be summarised as the need to achieve true sovereignty for Colombia. This is the common thread behind all his agrarian, pension, health, and other reforms. But the reality is that each of these reforms is a threat to the profits of the US ruling class operating in Colombian territory. It is precisely to secure these profits that the US has invested so heavily in security.

Colombia’s security problems are directly linked to imperialism and the global market. The cartels’ weapons and money come directly from the US market. US security initiatives such as ‘Plan Colombia’ destabilise entire regions of the country in order to repress the unions. This must be taken into account now that the government presents itself as the “United States’ #1 ally against narco-terrorism.”

The struggle against imperialism, therefore, cannot involve an alliance with it. Especially with a volatile actor like Trump.

The Colombian working class, which produces the wealth that the imperialists extract, needs to organise.

If organised, it could lead the peasantry, which has been forced for centuries to produce for the world market and local large landowners. Such a force could expropriate the upper echelons of the economy and place them under the democratic control of the workers and peasants. Such a victory would be the first step toward a planned economy and the expulsion of the imperialists from the national territory.

By taking such a bold step, the Colombian working class could give the starting signal to the working class of Latin America, one of the richest regions in the world, to expel Yankee imperialism from their territories and found the Socialist Federation of Central and South America. This workers’ state would be an advanced base of operations for the world socialist revolution and could force the surrender of the US ruling class once and for all.