Colombia’s far-left President Gustavo Petro accused the United States on Wednesday of “ruining all the economies of the world,” deflecting blame as Colombia, whose economy is currently at risk of entering a recession, faces the worst decline in the value of the country’s peso currency and the highest annual inflation rate in over two decades.
“The United States is practically ruining all the economies of the world,” Petro said on Wednesday at a public event in the Colombian department, the country’s state- or province-level division, of Antioquia. Petro also claimed that Russia, Ukraine, and Europe have unleashed a “war for gas and energy.”
“And after that war, the European economy collapsed. Powerful Germany is entering a recession and, who would have thought, England, which was once the colonial power, the British Empire, today is falling apart in a deep economic crisis,” Petro said. The president also claimed the United States takes decisions only to protect itself without thinking through what will happen, such as, according to him, draining the economies of Latin American nations.
His comments were given as Colombia faces an historic drop of value in the exchange rate of its currency against the United States dollar, which has reached upwards of 4,800 Colombian pesos per U.S. dollar as of October 20, according to Colombia’s Stock Exchange.
A week earlier, Petro had told Colombian citizens that an economic recession is approaching. Colombia’s annual inflation rate has reached 11.4 percent — the highest rate since 1999. Experts’ opinions differ on the matter, with some having stated that Colombia will not go through a recession next year, while others assert that, while Colombia is not currently in recession, the recent decision of Colombia’s Central Bank to raise interest rates to a 14-year high could halt the Colombian economy, putting it at risk of going through a recession.
While Petro placed the blame over Colombia’s economic situation on the United States, he availed himself of the opportunity to also blame Colombia’s oil and coal industries for the ongoing decline of the exchange rate value of the Colombian peso during the same event.
“The dollars that have been built in Colombia are coming out, that have entered Colombia for the export of coal and oil. Both are public property of the nation,” Petro said. “Do not take out the money en masse, because in Colombia there are more opportunities.”
Oil and coal are two of Colombia’s top exports that the far-left president has been openly waging a campaign against since before he was elected president. Shortly after the start of his presidential term, Petro had announced his government’s intention to end all natural gas exploration and production contracts in Colombia in the name of “environmental justice,” which will end the nation’s natural gas self-sufficiency.
Francisco Palmieri, the U.S. ambassador in Colombia, responded to Petro’s accusations against the United States during a press conference that took place in the U.S. Embassy in Bogotá on Wednesday.
“We shouldn’t be thinking about where to lay the blame. We must focus on working together. This way we can improve and promote the development we need,” Ambassador Palmieri said while commenting that “The challenges of the current economic situation are due to many reasons. Russia’s aggression against Ukraine is a major threat to the U.S. economy.”
Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.
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