China announced on Wednesday that it elevated its diplomatic relations with Colombia to a “strategic partnership” after Colombian far-left President Gustavo Petro met with genocidal dictator Xi Jinping.
Including Colombia, China now holds “strategic partnerships” with 11 of South America’s 12 nations, leaving Guyana as the sole remaining nation in the region keeping ordinary bilateral ties with China. Colombia is one of the United States’ oldest allies in the region, having established diplomatic relations in 1822.
Petro, a former member of the Marxist M19 guerrilla and Colombia’s first leftist president ever, is presently in Beijing as part of a two-day official visit to China. Petro and Xi’s encounter follows a massive international controversy Petro created with extensive tirades on social media condemning Israel following the gruesome Hamas terrorist attack on October 7, which killed around 1,200 civilians in Israel. In response to the Hamas attack — which featured the mass murder of children as young as infants, the elderly, and the disabled — Petro compared Israel to Nazi Germany and accused it of turning Gaza into a concentration camp to the likes of Auschwitz.
Petro went as far as to threaten to cut ties with Israel altogether after the Israeli government halted its security exports to Colombia in response to Petro’s comparisons to Nazi Germany.
In their joint statement, released on Wednesday, Colombia and China expressed “concern over the escalation of violence and the humanitarian situation in Palestine and Israel,” making calls to both sides to “cease hostilities and put an end to actions affecting the civilian population.”
The statement reads:
Both parties agree on the urgency of encouraging the parties to achieve a ceasefire and an end to violence, to protect civilians to prevent further humanitarian disasters, and to resume peace talks as soon as possible, and call for the convening of a peace conference to reach an international consensus on the coexistence of the two states, Palestine and Israel.
Neither Colombia nor China condemned Hamas for its terrorist attack and invasion of Israel.
Upon his arrival to China, Petro stated his intent to hold discussions pertaining to the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), the Chinese Communist Party’s debt trap program in which it offers predatory loans to nations for infrastructure projects under unfavorable terms that ultimately result with China seizing the projects or exerting geopolitical pressure on the nation. Colombia is currently not part of BRI.
“It [BRI] has its pros and its cons,” Petro said. “It is a policy of building infrastructure around the world, but in the Colombian case, it has a special chapter, the link between Pacific and Atlantic oceans.
“Few countries have it, and that practically makes us a world trade bridge,” he continued. “More than a bridge, it could be an opportunity for Colombia in terms of development of rail infrastructure, which is vital today.”
Xi – who, according to the office of the President of Colombia, described Petro as “good friend and partner” – oversaw the signing of 12 agreements between China and Colombia alongside Petro. The agreements covered Colombian beef exports, trade generally, the digital economy, ecological development and “decarbonization,” and mutual state-owned media deals.
“Neither mountains nor seas can distance people with common aspirations,” Xi said to Petro. “The vast Pacific Ocean cannot stand in the way of the deep friendship between the Chinese and Colombian people.”
Petro responded by stating that “the relationship between our countries has been essential in facing diverse and numerous challenges.”
One of the main topics in Petro’s agenda on China concerns the construction of a subway line for the Colombian city of Bogotá, which Petro served as mayor between 2012 and 2015. Never-completed plans to construct a rapid transit subway network for Bogotá span decades, all the way back to the 1940s. Although numerous proposals have been made, none have yet managed to successfully materialize.
Prior to his meeting with Xi, Petro met with representatives of Xi’an Metro Company and China Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC), which are presently slated to construct two subway lines for Bogotá by 2026.
Petro has insisted that the subway project uses research from his time as mayor, which called for a section of the proposed metro lines to be built underground. Petro added that “it would be foolish” for Bogotá not to have a subway if Colombia “wants to finance one hundred percent of that project.”
The decision to build a segment of the proposed Bogotá Metro railway underground as opposed to having it be an elevated railway has long been a point of contention for the far-left president, which he once again brought up during his meeting with both Chinese companies.
Petro publicly made calls on Wednesday night in favor of his proposal and the studies commissioned during his time as mayor of Bogotá. The studies that Petro insists upon have been criticized by the Colombian Society of Engineers, which described them as “incomplete” and criticized them for not complying with the Ministry of Transportation’s technical, financial, and risk-structuring demands.
The project’s website states that, according to studies commissioned in January 2016, an elevated railway for Bogotá would not only be cheaper to build, but would also incur 28 percent less in operating costs when compared to a subway, as well as other benefits such as reduced potential construction and operational risks.
In September, the Office of the Inspector General of Colombia determined that the proposed modifications that Petro insists upon would incur additional costs of upwards of 8 billion Colombian pesos ($1.9 million) in addition to creating further delays for the project, which prompted a brief clash between Petro and the Inspector General.
Following his meeting with CHEC representatives, Petro asserted that it is “technically and legally” possible for a section of the Metro to be built underground.
“With the Metro company there is agreement that technically the first line can be developed in two phases, an elevated first phase and a subway one, using the studies that were done in my Mayor’s office and the studies that have been done in the following Mayor’s offices,” Petro said.
“It would not imply major delays, technically it is possible, legally it is also possible,” he added. “The question is politically.”
Petro also touted the idea of having Chinese companies build a railway network that connects the region’s ports.
“With the railroad expert company we explained how, using Colombia’s geographic position that joins the Pacific Ocean with the Atlantic, we can develop a national railroad network in several sections using the old ones and thus connect all the ports of the Caribbean,” Petro said.
The Colombian presidency, which declared Petro’s trip a “success,” reported that Petro laid a wreath in Tiananmen Square and signed the guest book located at the Mausoleum of Mao Zedong.
“I was 15 years old when I read Mao. His five philosophical theses and his studies on contradiction. The flow of life and history. You sowed illusions in the entire youth of the world, and opened the way for your people to be great in the hour, Commander,” Petro wrote in the book. “History goes on and the conflict can plunge us into human extinction. Today it is either capital or life. We go for the Long March’ for life.”
Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.