In Colombia, Harry and Meghan's harmful 'smoke and mirrors' faux-statecraft

Here they go again. The duke and duchess of Sussex indulged in a splashy faux royal tour — and did so while King Charles III and his family are on annual summer holiday at Balmoral Castle in Scotland.

Their four-day holiday in Colombia might have served the business and public relations interests of the Montecito couple well. But it risked doing great disservice to the foreign policy of the United Kingdom — and by extension that of the national security of the U.S. 

Official royal tours, like U.S. presidential visits abroad, are intended to advance the foreign policy interests of the UK. Beyond high-level meetings and glitzy receptions, these high-stake diplomatic undertakings are measured by the bi-lateral nation-to-nation deliverables expected of them — and of their lasting positive impact.

Harry and Meghan could not deliver that.

Other than D-list celebrity, the oft-whinging duo had nothing to offer Bogotá long-term. Photo-ops, media hype and sugary goodwill are fleeting. Absent Whitehall purpose and oversight, there is little to be gained by either Colombia or the UK.

Sussex Inc., however, arguably had a lot to gain, and therein lies the rub. Not-so-private worldwide tours masquerading as royal tours are undoubtedly valuable from a business branding and marketing standpoint.

Cashing in on faux-statecraft really should be beyond the pale for the son and daughter-in-law of the reigning king of England and head of the Commonwealth of Nations. Harry, especially, knows better. His grandmother, the late Queen Elizabeth II, set the global gold-standard for duty, country and public service.

The trip was justified as part of an effort by Harry and Meghan to promote mental health and “safeguard young people from online harm.” Laudable on the surface until you consider the track records of the two delivering the messaging.

In many minds, the duke and duchess are the multimedia standard-bearers of familial bullying – including Harry crassly weaponizing now nine-year-old Princess Charlotte in his memoir, "Spare" in a likely effort to publicly embarrass and humiliate her parents, the now prince and princess of Wales. 

It was, therefore, not without irony when Harry claimed in Colombia, “the spread of false information via AI and social media means 'we are no longer debating facts.'” Queen Elizabeth, after all, had sharply sent that same message to Harry and Meghan rebuking their claims of royal racism by releasing a statement in response that “recollections may vary.”

Ill-suited or not as messengers, the timing of their faux royal tour was suspect. The royal family, for decades, as was Queen Elizabeth’s custom, vacations as a private family at Balmoral in August. It begs the question whether their trip was about serving Colombia’s interests or embarrassing Harry’s family.

Harry and Meghan’s decision to travel to Colombia in August was likely purposeful messaging to a cancer-stricken King Charles and Queen Camilla. The Netflix double act still have no intention of playing by family rules — or adhering to Queen Elizabeth’s edict that they cannot be half in and half out. 

It is hypocritical too. Harry’s public excuse is that he is unwilling to travel to the UK as a family due to security fears — and yet they are self-servingly touring one of the most crime-ridden countries in the world.

Now was not the time for Harry and Meghan to be seen playing "world-wide privacy tour" games in Colombia. The country is still struggling to emerge from an ongoing 60-plus years of guerilla war and overcome the societal damage caused by drug cartels.

Colombia is in dire need of more than "smoke and mirrors" statecraft from a Montecito for-profit brand-oriented couple. Especially as the South American country now finds itself a fragile crossroads about how best to move forward as a democratic nation.

Human security for the first time is taking center stage in Colombia. President Gustavo Petro is aiming to maneuver Bogotá away from reliance on the country’s past “Mano Duro” (zero tolerance) and overt militaristic approach to Colombia’s devastating high crime rates, drug lords and economic disparity and instead “address [their] root causes.”

As Juliana Rubio noted for CSIS, Mano Duro resulted in the interweaving of “national security with issues of crime and violence.” Consequently, as she notes, “matters under the purview of local police … morphed into strategic military concerns, at times blurring the boundaries between the roles of the National Police and the Armed Forces."

Washington, however, is concerned with how that balancing act plays out. Ninety percent of cocaine entering the U.S. originates in Colombia — and Colombian cocaine production is rapidly snowballing due to growing global demand. 

Colombia is central to U.S. national security. President Biden rightly told Petro at the White House in 2023 that “Colombia is the key to the hemisphere.” Earlier, in March, Gen. Laura Richardson, commander of U.S. Southern Command, noted Colombia’s “mil-to-mil” importance to the U.S. as Washington pushes back against Russian and Chinese machinations in “Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela.”

Sans Downing Street advice, Harry and Meghan were naively playing checkers in a dangerous world of superpower 3D chess. Vexingly, this is par for the course. They did it in Nigeria and in Jamaica. Their Netflix Series and its labeling of the 56-member Commonwealth of Nations as “Empire 2.0” unwittingly played into the hands of Russian and Chinese disinformation in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Selling luxury jams, dog biscuits and hosting a cooking show are all perfectly fine under the guise of Meghan’s American Riviera Orchard Brand. But using countries such as Colombia as marketing backdrops and as tools to upstage the Royal Family is decidedly not fine — especially given the far-reaching and ongoing global implications to UK and U.S. national security.

Once upon a time before Hollywood, Harry could have continued to suitably champion global statecraft. No longer. He and Meghan chose freedom and dollars over royal duty. Now, it is high time they cease their smoke and mirrors act and permanently exit the global stage of statecraft. Colombia has real substantive needs, and Sussex Inc. cannot even begin to substantively deliver them. 

Mark Toth writes on national security and foreign policy. Col. (Ret.) Jonathan Sweet served 30 years as a military intelligence officer.