In a week marked by pivotal political developments and high-stakes diplomacy, U.S. Senator Bernie Moreno returned to his birthplace of Bogotá, Colombia, carrying a message that resonated far beyond the Andean capital. The visit, which occurred just days before Senator Sherrod Brown’s formal announcement of his 2026 Senate campaign in Ohio, underscored the intertwining of American and Latin American politics at a moment of rising global tensions and domestic realignments.
Senator Moreno’s journey to Colombia was more than a homecoming. As reported by China Global South and Breitbart News, Moreno, a Republican from Ohio who immigrated to the United States as a child, arrived in Bogotá alongside Arizona Democrat Ruben Gallego. Their bipartisan delegation attended the funeral of Miguel Uribe Turbay, a 39-year-old Colombian senator who died in mid-August 2025 after being shot by a child during a campaign rally the previous month. Uribe Turbay’s death, following a prolonged battle in intensive care, left Colombia’s conservative movement reeling and cast a shadow over the country’s upcoming 2026 presidential election.
In exclusive interviews and statements, Moreno painted a stark picture of Colombia’s current political climate. He described a nation grappling with a “growing wave of violence and persecution against conservatives” under the leadership of President Gustavo Petro. Petro, Colombia’s first leftist president and a former member of the Marxist M19 guerrilla group, has faced criticism from both domestic and international observers for presiding over a surge in cocaine production and organized crime. According to Moreno, “Petro’s response has been to declare cocaine safer than fossil fuels and reintegrate guerrilla criminals into law-abiding Colombian communities.”
Despite their ideological differences, Moreno secured a three-and-a-half-hour meeting with President Petro in Bogotá. He characterized the discussion as “productive and cordial,” noting that Petro acknowledged the urgent need to protect conservative politicians from Marxist violence. “Petro was elected democratically by the citizens of Colombia,” Moreno told Breitbart News. “So my goal was, ‘What are some things that we can do?’ And we’ve got some common ground, they need some more help on drones, they got rid of some auto industry trade restrictions that were important.”
Moreno’s visit was not limited to the presidential palace. He also met with former President Álvaro Uribe, a towering figure in Colombian conservatism who, despite leaving office in 2010, remains a powerful kingmaker. Uribe has been under house arrest for over a decade on charges related to alleged abuse of power and bribery, a case that many on the right describe as politically motivated. “Everybody’s begging, begging the United States for help restoring law and order to Colombia,” Moreno observed, reflecting on conversations with Uribe, Uribe Turbay’s family, and a broad cross-section of Colombian society.
The senator’s message to Colombian leaders was blunt: clean up the drug trade, distance yourself from China, and choose America as your primary strategic partner. As China Global South highlighted, Moreno’s visit came amid escalating U.S.-China rivalry in Latin America, with both superpowers vying for influence across the region. Moreno emphasized, “The interesting irony was that no matter who I talked to in Colombia… we literally talked to the entire ecosystem. Obviously former President Uribe as well, Miguel Uribe’s family, everybody’s begging, begging the United States for help restoring law and order to Colombia.”
Moreno’s advocacy for renewed American engagement in the hemisphere drew a direct line to former President Donald Trump’s policies. “President Trump’s strategies towards Latin America are working,” Moreno asserted. “We have a secure border because of President Trump. We have a crackdown on these narco-terrorists because of President Trump. Which leads you to understand that there was no better friend for drug traffickers, drug dealers, and human traffickers than Joe Biden and the Democrats, which is very sad.” He went further, likening Trump’s approach to the Monroe Doctrine of the early 19th century, which sought to keep the Western Hemisphere free from foreign—particularly communist—influence. “President Trump is the first president in my lifetime who is basically saying, ‘We’re not going to put up with this anymore, and we’re not going to have a tepid response.’”
Moreno’s remarks also touched on the cultural and symbolic resonance of Trump’s brand in Latin America. “The most popular thing you can bring to Latin America, where people will just — their eyes are wide open and they have a big smile on their face — you give them a red MAGA hat and they think they just won the lottery,” he said. “At the airport, we had to get like nine of them because the police officers that were sweeping the aisles, the security guys, all these guys — I could’ve given them $500, they would’ve preferred the MAGA hat. It was crazy.”
Colombia’s political future remains uncertain. With 56 “pre-candidates” vying for the presidency in 2026, Moreno urged conservatives to rally behind a single, strong candidate who can connect with working-class voters and counter the appeal of socialist promises. “President Trump knows how to talk to working Americans, cares about working Americans, and I implored the people in Colombia that… you’ve got to talk to that worker in Colombia,” Moreno advised. “If they don’t do that, and other leaders in South America and Latin America don’t do that, they’ll continue to elect communists and socialists who promise them everything and deliver nothing.”
Back in Ohio, the reverberations of Moreno’s Colombian trip were felt in the context of U.S. Senate politics. As reported by Rotunda Rumblings, Democrat Sherrod Brown, after losing to Moreno in 2024, announced his intention to challenge Republican incumbent Jon Husted in 2026. The upcoming election will determine who completes the final two years of now-Vice President JD Vance’s Senate term. Brown’s campaign, already endorsed by the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, faces a political landscape shaped by Moreno’s rising profile and the Republican Party’s assertive foreign policy stance.
Moreno’s bipartisan trip with Gallego was described as a “pivotal moment” in U.S.-Colombia relations, reflecting both the urgency of the situation in Colombia and the high stakes for American influence in the region. As Latin America becomes an arena for great power competition, the choices made in Bogotá and Washington will reverberate across the hemisphere for years to come.
For now, Senator Moreno remains hopeful. “We gotta make certain that who comes next is somebody strong, not a lightweight, somebody that can present a vision for Colombia that really resonates with its people,” he said. “But I am hopeful — I am very, very hopeful — that that happens. I think Colombia can have a great, bright future and America will be standing ready there to welcome them to the kind of relationship we had when Uribe was president.”
The coming months will test whether that vision can become reality, as Colombia prepares for a crucial election and the United States recalibrates its role in a rapidly changing world.
