The President of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, made a proposal to create a court of the Americas as a tool to combat drug trafficking during the opening day of the International Economic Forum Latin America and the Caribbean 2026, organized by CAF in Panama City.
In that city, heads of state, ministers, and business leaders from across the region gathered to discuss issues ranging from economic integration to the fight against transnational networks.
In that setting, the president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, made the fight against drug trafficking one of the central axes of his speech, putting forward a proposal that seeks to go beyond traditional frameworks of cooperation and advocate for coordinated regional justice.
Colombia’s Petro proposes a tribunal in the Americas for drug trafficking at CAF Forum
Petro opened his remarks with a call for continental unity and a redefinition of priorities in the foreign policy of Latin America and the Caribbean. For the Colombian leader, current strategies have shown their limits in the face of a phenomenon he described as global and multifaceted, driven by criminal economies that operate with no respect for borders or national sovereignties.
From the podium, he insisted that isolated efforts or sporadic enforcement actions are not enough: “Drug trafficking can only be confronted through international cooperation in intelligence and coordinated actions,” he argued, referring to the role of the United States and countries in the region in current patterns of drug consumption and control.
At the core of his proposal was the idea of creating a “Tribunal of the Americas” specialized in crimes related to drug trafficking, which would make it possible to jointly try and sanction those responsible for transnational criminal networks. Petro presented this mechanism as a necessary step to strengthen regional justice and overcome the legal fragmentation that has characterized state responses to date.
He argued that the current dispersion of competencies and reliance on jurisdictions outside the region — especially those of the United States and Europe — have limited the effectiveness of investigations and allowed impunity. In his speech, Petro called on the Americas to make a pact to become “the great power” and confirmed that his banner in the meeting he will hold with the U.S. president will be freedom.
Within the framework of the forum, Petro stated that “peoples have become articulated in such a way that we must begin to perceive ourselves as a Latin American and Caribbean civilization. This is far more powerful than the mere articulation of nation-states.”
War against poisonous substances
In this regard, the president of Colombia said that “drug trafficking and the mafia, regardless of the substance, the most dangerous one, fentanyl, go against life and, therefore, we must carry out a total alliance of intelligences, of free minds, but intellectually elevated, to succeed in defeating today one of the main enemies of life, across all the Americas.”
In his speech, he said that these substances are not just drugs, but pure poison. To achieve this, the leader raised the need for dialogue among the Americas, stressing that it is important to attempt it and to understand that, as different civilizations, it is possible to reach agreements.
En el #ForoCAF, el Presidente @PetroGustavo aseguró que “el narcotráfico y la mafia, independientemente de la sustancia, la más peligrosa, el fentanilo, van contra la vida y, por tanto, tenemos que realizar una alianza total de inteligencias, de cerebros libres, pero… pic.twitter.com/WZBnWmJrRJ
— Presidencia Colombia 🇨🇴 (@infopresidencia) January 28, 2026
A court to break the status quo
Petro’s proposal envisions the Court of the Americas operating as a supranational judicial body, with jurisdiction over serious crimes linked to drug trafficking, money laundering, and the financial and logistical structures that sustain the illicit drug trade.
According to his remarks, regional justice must have the capacity to investigate and prosecute beyond national frameworks, harmonizing rules and procedures to avoid legal loopholes that currently benefit criminal organizations. This idea, he said, responds to the need to recognize that drug trafficking routes and the power structures behind them operate across sovereign states and that, therefore, a fragmented response is insufficient.
From Panama City, Petro also warned of the risks of a security policy dominated by external powers and criticized — without naming it directly — the use of military force outside established multilateral frameworks. The Colombian president stressed that the creation of the court is not intended to replace national institutions, but rather to complement them and strengthen coordination among Latin American and Caribbean judicial systems.
In laying out this framework, he insisted that a broader pact for life and freedom in the Americas is required — a vision that shapes his political message both at the forum and at the upcoming bilateral meeting with the president of the United States, Donald Trump.
The CAF 2026 Forum in Panama
The 2026 International Economic Forum, organized by the Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean (CAF), brings together political leaders, business executives, academics, and representatives of multilateral organizations in Panama City on Jan. 28–29 to discuss the region’s main economic and social challenges in a global context marked by uncertainty.
Under the theme “Integration, sustainability, and growth in a fragmented world,” the meeting focused on the need to strengthen regional cooperation in the face of economic slowdown, geopolitical tensions, and the persistent impact of climate change. During the plenary sessions, participants agreed that Latin America and the Caribbean must move toward a more resilient development model based on productive diversification, technological innovation, and social inclusion.
The executive president of CAF highlighted that Panama, due to its strategic position and its historical role as a logistics and financial hub, symbolizes the region’s challenges and opportunities. “Integration is not just a political ideal, but a necessary condition to compete in the global economy,” he said in his opening remarks.
Among the forum’s central themes were the energy transition, green financing, the digitalization of economies, and the future of work. Experts stressed the urgency of closing infrastructure and human capital gaps, as well as improving institutional quality to attract sustainable investment.
The forum also served as a platform for dialogue between the public and private sectors, with panels devoted to small- and medium-sized enterprises, the knowledge economy, and the role of development banking in reducing inequalities.
With an intense agenda and high-level participation, the CAF 2026 International Economic Forum consolidated Panama as a key venue for regional debate and reaffirmed the call for coordinated action to transform current challenges into opportunities for shared growth.