Trump´s (cancelled) Visit to Colombia
By: Diana Melendrez 10B
For more than a year now, the world has been divided into Trump’s supporters
and those who don’t support him. Most Colombians (as the polls tell us), are really
more into the second option, so it really surprised them when he won the presidential
elections. I mean, it’s the United States! Everyone panics when they think something is
not right about this country. Some time passed by, and everyone has mixed feelings
about what his mandate has been like. Now, in March, it was announced that Trump
was going to come to Latin America for the first time! He was going to go to Peru, and
then to Colombia. The date would have been the 15 th of April, and he would have met
our president Juan Manuel Santos to talk about the diplomatic relationship both
countries have while fighting against drugs and violence (peace treaty). A lot of
journalists talked about the news, arguing that it was great that the president of the
United States was visiting Latin America for the first time since his election to discuss
several issues that are really important, not only for the territorial section, but for the
world.
Everyone talked about Trump’s visit to Colombia in social media since some
people really liked the idea of him visiting but for some others it was the worst idea
ever presented. Many discussions were held, and a lot was argued. However, this all
suddenly stopped. Why? One day, the white house announced Trump’s visit was
completely cancelled. Now, the shock wasn’t about him not coming, but about him
cancelling his first trip to Latin America. No one really thought about it, but the reason
is pretty valid.
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The thing is, a talk about USA´s financial support to solve several issues was
expected from the meeting between the two presidents. Like I said before, this
included the war against drugs and violence, but also the $391.253 million pesos
financial aid to support Colombia’s programs. Additionally, it was expected from
president Trump to talk about the reduction of coke production (since it has been a
really important issue for the international community lately), and the fact that he was
likely to form an alliance with Colombia to face Venezuela’s crisis.
Nevertheless, it could not have been possible since Trump said he had to take
Syria’s situation into his own hands. This would later be confirmed by the event that
happened on April 14 th , in which USA, UK, and France executed an attack against
Syria’s government facilities.
The fact that this first visit wasn’t done is pitiful as there was quite a lot to
discuss. But sadly, the world is facing difficult situations that must be addressed
immediately. Hopefully, this meeting will be done soon so all these expectations can
become a reality and Colombia can improve more every time.