Colombia breaks file in coca cultivation, US-led conflict on drug ‘failure’, says authorities
Colombia, the world’s largest cocaine producer, broke its personal file for coca leaf cultivation in 2021, a United Nations physique mentioned on Thursday, as the federal government highlighted the “failure” of the US-led conflict on medication.
The United Nations Workplace on Medicine and Crime mentioned in a press release that there was a “43 p.c improve within the space below coca cultivation… from 143,000 hectares in 2020 to 204 thousand hectares in 2021.”
This was the best quantity for the reason that United Nations Workplace on Medicine and Crime started monitoring cocaine manufacturing in Colombia 21 years in the past.
The rise in coca cultivation went hand in hand with a rise in cocaine manufacturing from 1,010 tons in 2020 to 1,400 tons final yr, directed primarily to america and Europe.
The United Nations Workplace on Medicine and Crime mentioned this continued an “upward pattern that has been consolidated since 2014”.
Presenting the report in Bogota, Justice Minister Nestor Osuna mentioned the numbers have been clear proof of the “failure of the conflict on medication”.
He mentioned the federal government is engaged on a brand new drug coverage, which for now is not going to embody cocaine legalization.
However he hoped that “someday” the cocaine commerce might be regulated on a worldwide degree.
As a part of a brand new method, leftist Colombian President Gustavo Petro has provided an amnesty to drug traffickers keen to desert themselves and quit the commerce.
He additionally urged shopping for arable land to redistribute it to small farmers to make a dwelling from reputable crops, removed from the yoke of the drug cartels they rely on for his or her livelihood.
A ‘complete method’ Petro considers small-scale coca farmers the victims of a rustic that has poisoned their lands with pesticides for years to wipe out unlawful plantations.
1000’s of coca growers and collectors are behind bars on smuggling fees in Colombia.
Petro’s predecessor, Ivan Duque, was a key ally within the drug conflict led by america – the world’s largest shopper of cocaine.
Earlier this month, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken met Petro in Colombia, saying afterwards that they shared “widespread frequent floor”, regardless of the brand new president’s change of fashion.
“We strongly help the great method of the Petro administration,” Blinken mentioned after the assembly.
“On each the enforcement aspect but additionally by way of the general method to the issue…I feel we’re just about in sync,” he added.
The United Nations Workplace on Medicine and Crime mentioned coca cultivation “continues to threaten the nation’s cultural potential and biodiversity,” contributing to deforestation.
She added that half of the farms are in particular administration areas and a excessive proportion are on black neighborhood land and in forest protected areas.
(AFP)
