Washington (AFP) - Secretary of State Antony Blinken will head next week to Colombia and Chile to forge ties with new left-leaning leaders elected in the historic US allies, the State Department announced Friday.
The top US diplomat flies Monday to Colombia where he will see President Gustavo Petro, who took office in September as the first leftist to head the country long vital to US strategy in South America.
Blinken will then head Wednesday to Chile and see President Gabriel Boric, a 36-year-old left-wing former student leader who took office on a campaign to sweep away the legacy of US-backed dictator Augusto Pinochet.
The secretary will later travel to Peru for a meeting of the Organization of American States and separately meet with President Pedro Castillo and other top officials.
The State Department said that Blinken throughout the trip will emphasize core themes for President Joe Biden's administration -- democracy and the fight against climate change.
In Colombia, Blinken will discuss "supporting strong democratic governments and respect for human rights throughout the Western Hemisphere," State Department spokesman Ned Price said.
He will also speak of "implementing a holistic approach to counter narcotics trafficking and address its impacts on health, security and the environment," he said.
Petro has vowed to bring lasting peace to Colombia after six decades of sporadic violence in part by tamping down the war on drugs, which has long been backed by the United States.
Blinken will also speak in Colombia about its protections for Venezuelan migrants, which serves as "a model for the region," Price said.
On his last visit to Colombia in October 2021 and later at a US-led summit in Los Angeles, Blinken has encouraged regional cooperation to address migration, a key political issue in the United States for Biden.
Blinken's trip will come a day after the first round of elections in Latin America's most populous nation, Brazil, where far-right President Jair Bolsonaro is facing a strong challenge from leftist icon Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
