European Union commissioner calls President Petro’s policy of total peace ‘ambitious and complicated’

During his recent visit to Colombia Ylva Johansson, European Commissioner for Home Affairs of the European Union, underlined that the policy of total peace that she seeks to implement in the country is ambitious and difficult, so from this multilateral organization of the old continent, they will follow it closely.

“It is a rather ambitious plan, there are difficulties and challenges in this plan so we will follow it very closely. The European Union will provide its support to prosecute these criminal groups (…) it is an ambitious and difficult plan that Colombia has to approach the problem from this angle, but we know that it has not succeeded in the past, so something different has to be dealt with,” he said in an interview that he granted to the radio station W Radio during your visit.

He repeated in the radio media that the persecution against structures dedicated to drug trafficking in Colombia cannot stop and that beatings should be encouraged at their highest level.

“The most important thing is to go after the organized groups because they are very strong, professional and they are international groups that have a presence in Latin America and Europe, so you have to pursue them at the highest level, at the highest officials of these groups,” he said.

He also assured that the war against this phenomenon of transnational crime is not lost as experts say at the World level.

“The War on Drugs it is not lost, it must be considered that these mafias do not only traffic in drugs but also in human beings and weapons, that is why they must be attacked; I consider it crucial to strengthen this fight against the mafias and be creative as they always find new ways to keep committing crimes,” he said in W Radio.

There European Union announced on Thursday February 2 that will finance a pilot project in Colombia with which it aims to strengthen police cooperation and the exchange of information with Europol, in its strong commitment to fight against drug trafficking, organized crime and human trafficking.

The announcement was made by Johansson, in collaboration with the Minister of the Interior, Institutional Reform and Democratic Renewal of Belgium, Annelies Verlindenin the visit they made to Bogotá, as part of a tour they made in the region that began with a visit to Ecuador.

“We are in Colombia to talk about the fight against the upper layers of organized crime gangs”, Johansson at a press conference in the Colombian capital.

He added that it is important to join the forces of the European Union and Colombia to show the criminal groups that: “We are chasing them and we will do it together.”

The fight against organized crime and the violence associated with it is, for Johansson, a threat to security in Europe, Colombia and Ecuador, another of the countries visited by the senior official, Therefore, it is crucial to strengthen security cooperation with Latin America.

Likewise, the senior official underlined that “the citizens of the European Union and of the world cannot be protected without teamwork” because “the criminals are very professional and work with bases in Colombia and Europe.

The Home Affairs Commissioner announced the commitment of the The European Union will fund a pilot project in Colombia to operationalize police cooperation and information exchange with Europol.

“It is important to start attacking the upper levels of criminal groups,” Johansson said, adding that “it’s a shared responsibility to fight these groups” because “We are talking about the security of our citizens in Europe and in Colombia.”

For her part, the Belgian Minister of the Interior said that “criminal organizations must be dismantled” and that “no country can face this fight alone because organized criminal groups involved in drug trafficking operate in different countries”.