DistantNews
Support us
De la Espriella Government Highlights U.N. Role in Fighting Crime and Drugs
🇵🇾 Paraguay /Crime & Justice

De la Espriella Government Highlights U.N. Role in Fighting Crime and Drugs

From ABC Color · () Spanish

Translated from Spanish and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

Newswire Official statement New plan
  • Foreign Minister Omar Bula praised the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime for its technical assistance and capacity-building programs during a meeting with regional representative Amado Philip de Andrés.
  • The government said closer coordination could strengthen Colombia's response to transnational organized crime and avoid duplicated efforts.
  • The endorsement contrasts with Bula's campaign criticism of the United Nations, while a recent U.N. report recorded 253,000 hectares of coca cultivation in Colombia in 2023.

Colombia's new government is seeking closer cooperation with the United Nations on crime and drugs, even though Foreign Minister Omar Bula once described the organization as an instrument of globalism.

Bula made the more positive assessment after meeting Amado Philip de Andrés, the regional representative of the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime. According to Colombia's Foreign Ministry, they discussed the challenges posed by drugs and transnational organized crime, along with the need to strengthen cooperation against them.

Bula said close and timely coordination with the Foreign Ministry was essential. He argued that it could prevent duplicated efforts and improve consistency among UNODC activities. He also highlighted the agency's accumulated experience and said Colombia could use its expertise and interministerial and cross-sector coordination mechanisms to strengthen its response to organized crime.

It is essential to maintain close and timely coordination with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to avoid duplicated efforts and promote coherence among UNODC activities.

— Omar BulaThe Colombian foreign minister explained why closer coordination with the U.N. agency was needed.

The tone marked a clear change from Bula's position during the campaign, when he served as an international affairs adviser to President De la Espriella. In a post on X at the time, Bula said the United Nations had lost its neutrality and credibility, arguing that globalism had turned it into an instrument for implementing the controversial Agenda 2030 and an anti-Western agenda.

UNODC monitors illicit crops in Colombia each year. Its latest report said the country reached a record 253,000 hectares of coca in 2023 and remained the world's leading cocaine producer. Colombia also plans to attend the 15th U.N. Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice. Justice Minister Iván Cancino will address the high-level segment by video message.

Globalism killed the U.N. It became its instrument for implementing the controversial Agenda 2030 and adopted an anti-Western agenda.

— Omar BulaHe made the criticism during the election campaign, before becoming foreign minister.
About this summary

Originally published by ABC Color in Spanish. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

More Stories

From Our Blog