There is a very old popular saying, and like almost all of them very accurate, that in politics there is no free lunch, which would be something like a rustic version of Isaac Newton's famous laws of action and reaction in the field of physics.

By Guillermo Alvarado 

There is a very old popular saying, and like almost all of them very accurate, that in politics there is no free lunch, which would be something like a rustic version of Isaac Newton's famous laws of action and reaction in the field of physics.

Some of this must have been learned in these months by the president of Colombia, Iván Duque, who after betting his shirt on a Donald Trump victory in the United States, has received the law of ice from the White House with whose current head, Joseph Biden, he has not been able to meet.

Duque's sorrows were alleviated a little with the recent and fleeting visit of the US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, although he did not echo the favorite topic of the Colombian ruler, which is the constant aggression against the Bolivarian Revolution of Venezuela.

As the academic Ociel Alí López points out very well in an article published in the digital portal of Sputnik, it is not that Washington has changed its discourse against President Nicolás Maduro, but that the priorities in that meeting were different.

In the first place, the United States urgently needs to contain the migratory waves, many of which originate from the south of the continent; next comes the issue of illicit drugs, of which Colombia is the main producer and exporter in this part of the world and, finally, the issue of human rights.

Duque finally had the satisfaction of receiving a senior official from the Biden administration, but in return he had to hear him say that it is time to be accountable for the serious violations committed during the repression of the recent protests, as well as for the paralysis of the peace accords.

I insist, it is not that Blinken cares about the Colombian civilians killed almost every day, nothing like that.  In short, it is a question of form because the United States is interested in continuing to project a false image as a defender of individual and collective guarantees.

And if in politics there are no free lunches, there are usually no coincidences either and that is why it is striking that a few hours after the visit, the capture of the most wanted drug lord for months, Dairo Antonio Usuga, alias Otoniel, head of the Gulf Cartel, has been announced.

Duque announced it as a great success, but some experts warn that this arrest is not going to change this murky business, as did not happen with the death of Pablo Escobar or the fall of Chapo Guzman in Mexico.

They are, in any case, blows of effect because drug trafficking is a transnational business, structured in the best capitalist style where the heads change, but the body remains the same.