Colombia’s president, Gustavo Petro, used a recent trip to Vienna to tell U.N. drug officials what he has been saying for years: the conventional fight against drugs did not work. He also linked rising drug deaths, social isolation and the climate crisis to what he calls a "culture of extinction."

Why he went to Vienna

Petro traveled to the United Nations Commission on Narcotic Drugs as Colombians voted at home in an important legislative election. He wanted to press one simple point: treating drug use mainly as a crime has failed. He argues public health and social policies should replace criminalization.

The tally he wants you to see

  • About one million people have died in Latin America as a result of violence tied to the cocaine trade. Roughly 300,000 of those deaths happened in Colombia.
  • Fentanyl is killing tens of thousands in the United States each year. Petro cited figures around 70,000 to 80,000 deaths annually and warned that in a decade U.S. deaths from fentanyl could outnumber Latin American deaths tied to cocaine over the past 50 years.
  • Drug networks have evolved. What began as mostly national cartels are now multinational criminal organizations that traffic cocaine, people, weapons and organs across continents.

How drugs reflect societies

Petro said different drugs mirror the societies that consume them. He described marijuana as once tied to youth protest movements, cocaine as a drug of the well paid and busy, and fentanyl as a product of extreme individual isolation. He called fentanyl a "suicide drug" and warned it is the drug of human extinction if social conditions do not change.

Why the old War on Drugs failed, in his view

Petro traces much of the problem back to a punitive policy launched in the United States decades ago. He says that policy ignored cultural and economic differences, prioritized criminalization over health, and helped create the violence and multinational crime networks the world faces today.

Colombia’s own record and tactics

Petro pointed to his government’s counter-narcotics results as evidence that Colombia knows how to fight drug trafficking. During his administration he said authorities seized a record 3,300 tons of cocaine, handed over 800 traffickers to U.S. authorities, recovered 78,000 weapons, and built police intelligence coordination with 75 countries.

He also described operations near Colombia’s borders where Colombian forces recovered weapons and large drug caches, arguing that those results show Colombia’s experience matters more than political declarations made elsewhere.

Why he skipped the so called Southern Shield meeting

Petro said Colombia was not invited to that meeting, so it did not attend. He criticized the meeting as political posturing more than an effective military strategy. He warned against rhetoric that frames the hemisphere as a white Christian Western project and called that approach outdated and dangerous.

Energy, climate and a very practical proposal

Petro linked the drug problem to wider economic and social failures and put forward a concrete energy idea. He noted South America has a large potential for clean energy, roughly three times the amount the United States currently produces. With political will and an investment he estimated at about 500 billion dollars, Petro said South American clean energy could be transmitted north and substantially reduce U.S. reliance on fossil fuels.

That plan would require a different geopolitical approach. Petro framed it as a chance to shift from conquest toward genuine dialogue and partnership between regions.

On the U.S., Cuba and diplomacy

Petro described past tensions with the U.S. He said he is on the U.S. Treasury Department sanctions list and has faced pressure for his politics. Still, he stressed dialogue. He said his meeting in the Oval Office with former U.S. President Donald Trump showed different governments can still sit down and discuss common interests like energy.

On Cuba, Petro argued the island should be helped to develop clean energy and digital infrastructure. He called for engagement rather than exclusion, saying that opening Cuba could bring benefits in public health, science and culture.

Bottom line

Petro’s pitch mixes three big themes: the failure of punitive drug policy, the growth of transnational criminal networks, and the climate and energy crisis. He wants the world to move from a security-first mindset to one centered on public health, coordinated law enforcement, and large-scale clean energy cooperation. The message is blunt: change these systems now or face much worse outcomes.

Interview material was translated from Spanish and edited for clarity.