Far-left President of Colombia Gustavo Petro once again called for the legalization of cocaine and claimed it is “not worse than whiskey” during a disastrous six-hour-long meeting on Tuesday evening with his cabinet of ministers that the government broadcast live.
Petro — who has repeatedly defended the use of cocaine and described cocaine as less harmful than sugar — claimed on Tuesday that cocaine is only illegal because “it’s produced in Latin America” and suggested that, if legalized, it could be “sold like wine.”
“Right? The [drug] business could easily be dismantled if they legalize cocaine in the world. It would be sold like wine. The money would be used so that children, as it is today, don’t start drinking wine, alcohol or smoking,” Petro said. “In Colombia we have more or less succeeded in that. Now vapers, which are worse than cigarettes, are taking up the initiative, because they are legal.”
“And then, cocaine is illegal because they make it in Latin America. Not because it is worse than whiskey. That is what scientists analyze. Cocaine is not worse than whiskey,” Petro claimed, failing to cite any scientific evidence for his claim.
“And what the United States did get, which is fentanyl, is killing them. And that is not made in Colombia. But there it is, with no major policies against it [sic],” he continued. “So, they use fentanyl to get to Mexico. And fentanyl appeared as a pharmacy drug of the North American multinationals, which began to deliver it to do business.”
The Colombian far-left president hosted a nearly six-hour-long government meeting at Casa de Nariño presidential palace. The first two hours of the meeting aired as a mandatory broadcast on national television as per Petro’s instructions, who reportedly said that he got the idea from Cuba’s communist regime. The entire meeting was streamed online through social media.
The live government meeting was an unprecedented occurrence in Colombian politics. Such displays are common in the communist and socialist world, however, echoing Venezuela’s socialist regime, where mandatory aired government meetings routinely take place.
The meeting, which Petro presented as an “exercise in transparency,” descended into acrimony in several unhinged remarks issued by Petro and the public airing of grievances by some members of his administration, some of whom publicly criticized and questioned their own peers.
Petro acknowledged that his four-year administration, which started in August 2022, has failed to fulfil more than 75 percent of its campaign promises to date. Petro spent more than an hour berating his ministers for their lack of results and unfinished projects, especially those undertaken by the Housing and Defense ministries. Petro also berated his Education Minister for arriving late.
“This is the report of non-compliance and it is fatal, and I say it to the people, because I am ashamed. Out of 195 commitments, 146 have not been fulfilled. The president is a revolutionary, the government is not,” Petro said.
Petro once again lashed out against President Donald Trump over the deportation of Colombian migrants from the United States days after he caused a short-lived diplomatic crisis between both nations. Petro questioned the use of handcuffs and other restraints on those U.S. deportation flights.
“The first thing is that the Latin American arrives arrested, then we discuss tariffs. No, on the contrary. Trump thinks we kneel for merchandise, he thinks we are like him,” Petro said.
“We are different, we are not him. We can understand each other, yes, I am not saying no, he has to understand the difference,” he continued. “First they arrive without handcuffs and then we talk business, not the other way around.”
Although Petro once again criticized U.S. deportation flights of migrants, recently appointed Foreign Minister Laura Sarabia said that officials from Colombia’s Social Prosperity agency were not present at the arrival of a deportation flight that arrived from Panama over the weekend — leading the agency’s director Gustavo Bolívar to interrupt Sarabia and accuse her of “lying.”
“Please, the President is speaking,” Petro interjected.
Vice President Francia Márquez alongside several Colombian ministers, aired further grievances and expressed their distrust of Sarabia and Armando Benedetti, who was appointed by Petro on Tuesday to serve as his new chief of staff.
Márquez, who said that “people tell me that things were better before I came to this government” stated that she does not like Sarabia’s attitude with her and other ministers, and asserted that she has had to tell her, “respect me, I am the vice-president.” The Colombian vice president stressed that although she respects Petro’s appointment of Benedetti, she does not agree with it.
Both Sarabia and Benedetti are part of Petro’s innermost circle. Benedetti, a controversial former ambassador, is embroidered in several corruption, domestic violence, and drug and alcohol addiction scandals.
In 2023, Marelbys Meza, a Colombian woman who served as Sarabia’s nanny after Benedetti fired her, accused the foreign minister of forcing her to take a polygraph test in an illegal wiretapping and abuse of power in a scandal — known as “Nannygate” — that arose after Sarabia accused Meza of allegedly stealing a briefcase that contained $7,000 in cash. The scandal resulted in Sarabia and Benedetti’s departure from the Colombian government.
Environment Minister Susana Muhamad criticized Benedetti’s designation and said, “as a feminist and as a woman, I cannot sit at this table of our progressive project with Armando Benedetti.”
Petro responded to Muhamad by saying that Benedetti should be given a second chance.
“Men are not meant to destroy women. If we are before life, we are lovers of what life produces, sex first and love last,” Petro said.
Petro’s disastrous meeting was met with fierce backlash from Colombian politicians, some of whom described it as a “sad spectacle of civilization” and as a “circus show.” Colombia citizens widely mocked the meeting, leading to a barrage of memes and comments that compared it to soap operas and reality shows.
The situation prompted Interior Minister Juan Fernando Cristo to declare the Colombian cabinet as “unsustainable” and called for his peers to present protocolary resignations through a Wednesday morning social media post.
“After yesterday’s episode, the cabinet as it is formed today is unsustainable. The government still needs a year and a half and Colombians, especially the majorities that voted for a change represented today in the first democratic left-wing President of the country, expect that essential aspects of the government program and the National Development Plan will be fulfilled,” Cristo said.
Petro announced on Wednesday morning that all future cabinet meetings will be publicly broadcast so that “it will not be possible to misinform” the public about what the Colombian government discusses.
Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.