Link To Article: https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/colombia-secures-12-billion-loans-finance-budget-peace-plans-2024-02-12/
Colombia has reached multiple loan agreements from banks in Germany and the United States. The Colombian ministry signed two loan agreements worth up to $323 million each from German bank, KFW. Colombia has also agreed on a loan with the Inter-American Development Bank in Washington D.C. which is valued at $663 million. All the money being brought into the country is being used for a multitude of the country’s more valued needs such as peace plans and increasing their GDP percentage (market value of goods) as well as their fiscal deficit percentage (government spending more than their income). One reason for Germany’s help is due to the cooperation the two have had regarding peace and development in the past.
This story interested me and changed my mind a little bit about South America. This is due to the fact I didn’t think any South American countries did any big spending, especially dealing with foreign ones. This is important too because it helps solidify the idea Colombia is one of the strongest powers in South America and has the ability to influence the world. It is also seen from the deal Colombia is a country that is cooperative which shows no sign of poor relations that would ever become a security threat to major powers globally. There is no certainty whether all this money will make a strong positive difference, but we can make the assumption that Colombia will increase the morale of their people in their goals to increase GDP and peace.
Commercial peace theory is a topic we learned in class which relates to this article perfectly. The commercial peace theory is the idea that helping the economy and markets around the world via trade would lead to a more peaceful world between states and decrease the odds the states go to war with one another. In this article, we see Colombia borrow money from countries such as Germany installing the fact they would not go to war as they are on positive economic terms.