Colombia halts US arms purchases in row over drug fight

BOGOTA

Colombia on Sept. 16 halted arms purchases from the United States, its biggest military partner, after Washington decertified the South American country as an anti-drugs ally for failing to halt cocaine trafficking.

On Sept. 15, President Donald Trump denounced his leftist Colombian counterpart Gustavo Petro for not only failing to curb cocaine production, but overseeing its surge to "all-time records."

Trump added that as a result he had "designated Colombia as having failed demonstrably to meet its drug control obligations."

Reacting to the news, Colombian Interior Minister Armando Benedetti told Blu Radio that "from this moment on...weapons will not be purchased from the United States."

Colombian Army Commander Francisco Cubides added that Bogota's fight to "disrupt the drug trafficking chain" will continue, "with or without American support."

Trump's decertification of longtime ally Colombia, the first in three decades, was seen as mainly symbolic.

It was not expected to significantly affect the millions of dollars provided by Washington each year to Bogota to bolster its fight against drug cartels and left-wing guerrillas funded by cocaine trafficking.

But it was seen as a stinging rebuke of Petro's anti-drug efforts nonetheless.

The former left-wing guerrilla hit back, saying that the Colombian military would end its dependence on "handouts" from the United States.