Gallego at the Atlantic Council: “The Future of Latin America is Going to be Pivoting on Colombia”

Senator Speaks on U.S.-Colombia Relations Weeks Before Their Presidential Election WASHINGTON – Yesterday, Senator Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) , one of the first Colombian-Americans ever elected to the U.S. Senate, joined the Atlantic Council for a fireside chat on the importance of a strong U.S.-Colombia partnership and Colombia’s upcoming presidential election. Last August, Senator Gallego traveled to Colombia as part of a bipartisan congressional delegation trip, and he also met with President Petro earlier this year. At the Munich Security Conference, Senator Gallego spoke on a panel on Western Hemisphere security about his vision for the Americas. Watch Senator Gallego’s conversation HERE and read excerpts below: On the May 31st Colombian Presidential election given instability in Venezuela: “The future of Latin America is going to be pivoting on Colombia. And not just as a Colombian, because I’m very proud of my heritage, but its geography, its distance, its relationship to the United States in terms of our international security arrangements. If we don’t have a good partner to work with Colombia, that means we’re not going to have a good partner to work in Latin America.” “What Colombia has done under the last couple of presidents—both from the left, from the right, and from the center—to be able to be even a very good neighbor to Venezuela when Venezuela is going through some horrible times, is bring in somewhere between two to three million refugees and give them full status as Colombian citizens and full rights.” On what can be done to prevent escalation of violence in Colombia given recent attacks in the Southwest : “This is one of those areas where the United States can be a really good partner, especially when it comes to our use of intelligence, use of military equipment. […] This is what we have been doing with Colombia for decades: training them, giving them the lift, capability to do it, because most of it is going to involve intelligence and everything else like that. But what we need to do beyond that is that we need to make sure that we help […] those parts of Colombia feel that there’s actually a state to answer to […] If we can help Colombia to deliver societal goods– justice, education, roads or trade–then those [militant] organizations end up being less and less important.” On safety and security in Colombia’s upcoming presidential election: “The one area I think the United States could have been more helpful and still can is that we should be offering whatever we can in terms of our support, our intelligence, [or] if we can actually provide anything in terms of manpower, staff power. […] We should offer it to all the parties involved, so that way people don’t feel like we’re taking one side or the other. Election security matters.”