According to the State Department, representatives of the Colombian government at this meeting will promote the process initiated by the Latin American and Caribbean Drug Conference in Cali earlier this month.
At this meeting it was agreed to establish a roadmap and a follow-up group to provide new messages and consensus proposals on the global drug problem to multilateral bodies.
This includes the mid-term review of the 2019 Ministerial Declaration of the 67th United Nations Commission on Narcotic Drugs.
Colombia’s aim is to create spaces for inclusive, open and multidisciplinary dialogue and reflection on the global drug problem, based on the recognition that the punitive and criminalizing approach has not produced the expected results.
Colombia’s vision prioritizes public health, ensuring human rights and people’s freedoms.
The Colombian delegation is led by Defense Minister Iván Velásquez; who will be accompanied by State Department Assistant Secretary for Multilateral Affairs Elizabeth Taylor; the Director of the National Police, William Salamanca; among other officials
Relations between Colombia and the European Union have remained dynamic and have strengthened over the years, the Foreign Ministry noted.
This session of the bilateral drug dialogue will allow us to find common points and opportunities for future work on this issue, and in the same way, environmental issues will be included in a transversal way, he added.
Head of State Gustavo Petro has stressed at home and abroad the need to change anti-drug policies that have already failed worldwide.
At the World Economic Forum in Davos, given the global failure of the drug war, he emphasized the need not to criminalize and reduce consumption through prevention.
“There are millions of prisoners in the United States, most of them black; a million dead in Latin America, most of them Colombians; “These are no longer organizations that appear on television like Pablo Escobar, but rather really powerful multinational corporations that are involved in substance transfers around the world,” he warned.
In his opinion, Colombia cannot be pacified “except with a territorial and macroeconomic vision, that is, if we do not discuss today with the United States the failed anti-drug policy, we will have serious problems.”
rgh/otf