Ohio Sen. Bernie Moreno pushes Trump's agenda on drugs and trade in
Colombia homecoming
[August 11, 2025]
By JOSHUA GOODMAN and JULIE CARR SMYTH
MIAMI (AP) — When Republican Sen. Bernie Moreno visits Colombia this
week as part of a three-nation tour of Latin America, it’ll be something
of a homecoming.
Ohio’s first Latino senator was born in the Colombian capital of Bogota,
and even as he was chasing the American dream in the Buckeye state, he
kept close tabs on the country through older brothers who are
heavyweights in politics and business back home.
In an interview with The Associated Press ahead of the trip, Moreno
expressed deep concern about the country’s direction under left-wing
President Gustavo Petro and suggested U.S. sanctions, higher tariffs or
other retaliatory action might be needed to steer it straight.
The recent criminal conviction of former President Alvaro Uribe, a
conservative icon, was an attempt to “silence” the man who saved
Colombia from guerrilla violence, Moreno said. Meanwhile, record cocaine
production has left the United States less secure — and Colombia
vulnerable to being decertified by the White House for failing to
cooperate in the war on drugs.
“The purpose of the trip is to understand all the dynamics before any
decision is made,” said Moreno, who will meet with both Petro and Uribe,
as well as business leaders and local officials, during the visit. “But
there’s nothing that’s taken off the table at this point and there’s
nothing that’s directly being contemplated.”
Elected with Trump's support
Moreno, a luxury car dealer from Cleveland, defeated incumbent Democrat
Sherrod Brown last year with the help of Donald Trump’s endorsement and
$441 million in political ad spending — the most in U.S. Senate race
history.
He became Ohio’s senior senator on practically his first day in office
after his close friend JD Vance resigned the Senate to become vice
president. In Congress, he’s mimicked Trump’s rhetoric to attack top
Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer as a “miserable old man out of a Dickens
novel,” called on the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates and
threatened to subpoena California officials over their response to
anti-ICE protests in Los Angeles.
On Latin America, he’s been similarly outspoken, slamming Petro on
social media as a “socialist dictator” and accusing Mexico of being on
the path to becoming a “narco state.”
Such comments barely register in blue-collar Ohio, but they’ve garnered
attention in Latin America, where Moreno has emerged as an interlocutor
for conservatives in the region seeking favor with the Trump
administration. That despite the fact he hasn’t lived in the region for
decades, speaks Spanish with an American accent and doesn’t sit on the
Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
“He’s somebody to watch,” said Michael Shifter, the former president of
the Inter-American Dialogue in Washington. “He’s one of the most loyal
Trump supporters in the senate and given his background in Latin America
he could be influential on policy.”
Moreno, 58, starts his first congressional delegation to Latin America
on Monday for two days of meetings in Mexico City with officials
including President Claudia Sheinbaum. He’ll be accompanied by Terrance
Cole, the head of the Drug Enforcement Administration, who is making his
first overseas trip since being confirmed by the Senate last month to
head the premier federal narcotics agency.
Seeking cooperation with Mexico on fentanyl
Moreno, in the pre-trip interview, said that Sheinbaum has done more to
combat the flow of fentanyl into the U.S. than her predecessor and
mentor Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who he described as a “total
disaster.” But he said more cooperation is needed, and he’d like to see
Mexico allow the DEA to participate in judicial wiretaps like it has for
decades in Colombia and allow it to bring back a plane used in bilateral
investigations that López Obrador grounded.
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Sen. J.D. Vance, center, and Senate candidate Bernie Moreno, right,
applaud as Republican presidential candidate and former President
Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally in Vandalia, Ohio, March 16,
2024. (AP Photo/Jeff Dean, File)
“The corruption becomes so pervasive, that if it’s left unchecked,
it’s kind of like treating cancer,” said Moreno. “Mexico has to just
come to the realization that it does not have the resources to
completely wipe out the drug cartels. And it’s only going to be by
asking the U.S. for help that we can actually accomplish that.”
Plans to tour the Panama Canal
From Mexico, Moreno heads to Panama, where he’ll tour the Panama
Canal with Trump’s new ambassador to the country, Kevin Marino
Cabrera.
In March, a Hong Kong-based conglomerate struck a deal that would’ve
handed control of two ports on either end of the U.S.-built canal to
American investment firm BlackRock Inc. The deal was heralded by
Trump, who had threatened to take back the canal to curb Chinese
influence.
However, the deal has since drawn scrutiny from antitrust
authorities in Beijing and last month the seller said it was seeking
to add a strategic partner from mainland China — reportedly
state-owned shipping company Cosco — to the deal.
“Cosco you might as well say is the actual communist party,” said
Moreno. “There’s no scenario in which Cosco can be part of the
Panamanian ports.”
‘We want Colombia to be strong’
On the final leg of the tour in Colombia, Moreno will be joined by
another Colombian American senator: Ruben Gallego, Democrat of
Arizona. In contrast to Moreno, who was born into privilege and
counts among his siblings a former ambassador to the U.S., Gallego
and his three sisters were raised by an immigrant single mother on a
secretary’s paycheck.
Despite their different upbringings, the two have made common cause
in seeking to uphold the tradition of bilateral U.S. support for
Colombia, for decades Washington’s staunchest ally in the region.
It’s a task made harder by deepening polarization in both countries.
The recent sentencing of Uribe to 12 years of house arrest in a
long-running witness tampering case has jolted the nation’s politics
with nine months to go before decisive presidential elections. The
former president is barred from running but remains a powerful
leader, and Moreno said his absence from the campaign trail could
alter the playing field.
He also worries that surging cocaine production could once again
lead to a “narcotization” of a bilateral relationship that should be
about trade, investment and mutual prosperity.
“We want Colombia to be strong, we want Colombia to be healthy, we
want Colombia to be prosperous and secure, and I think the people of
Colombia want the exact same thing,” he added. “So, the question is,
how do we get there?”
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Smyth reported from Columbus, Ohio.
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