Colombia shifts strategy in drug war away from coca eradication
Al JazeeraAfter decades of fumigating and pulling up coca plants, Gustavo Petro announces drop in forced crop eradication goals. Bogotá, Colombia — After promising to radically change Colombian drug policy, the administration of President Gustavo Petro has announced plans this month to reduce forced eradication efforts that, for decades, have remained one of the country’s chief strategies to curb coca, the raw ingredient in cocaine. “But in particular, it’s his views on drugs that are seen by the upper classes in Colombia and the drug warriors in the United States as completely worrisome.” Petro’s predecessor, former President Ivan Duque, had favoured eradication tactics, believing that targetting coca crops would reduce violence and weaken armed groups. In response to the police’s new eradication goal, Juan Carlos Quintero, leader of the Peasant Farmer Association of Catatumbo, said any effort to forcibly remove crops “creates violence and mistrust”. In a statement, it said that “it’s fundamental to make full use of all the available tools to reduce coca cultivation”, including forced crop eradications.
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