Colombia broke a historic record for planted area of coca leaf, raw material for cocaine production, in the year 2021, according to data released by the UN this Thursday (20). There were 204 thousand hectares compared to 143 thousand the previous year – an increase of 43%.
The figure is the highest recorded by the United Nations since the survey began in 2001. The manufacture of the drug, whose main destinations are the USA and Europe, also grew: from 1,010 tons in 2020 to 1,400 in the last year.
The scenario reflects an upward trend that has been consolidating at least since 2014 in the country, which is the world’s largest producer of cocaine, says the UN report.
In the departments of Nariño and te Putumayo, on the border with Ecuador, are the regions with the most cultivation of the plant: almost 90 thousand hectares. Next is Catatumbo, on the border with Venezuela, with just over 42,500.
According to a UN analysis, the increase is the result of factors such as social vulnerability, the growth in global demand and the strengthening of armed groups that profit from this market.
The historic high corresponds to the last year of the government of Iván Duque. His successor, Gustavo Petro — the first left-wing leader elected in the Latin American country — has criticized the war on drugs model adopted in the region, describing it as a failure.
During the presentation of the report in the capital Bogotá, the Colombian Minister of Justice, Néstor Osuna, returned to the government’s motto. “The numbers are a visible demonstration of the failure of the war on drugs; it is technical evidence and a starting point for building a new drug policy.”
Osuna said that the Petro government should soon present a new strategy against drug trafficking and added that the plan should not provide for the legalization of cocaine — but added that, someday, trade and trafficking will need to be regulated.
In September, Petro dedicated his speech from the pulpit of the UN General Assembly, in New York, to criticizing the model of combating drug trafficking. He said, among other things, that the current model “only produced a genocide and sentenced thousands of people to prison to hide the guilt of world power.”
The UN report shows that much of the coca cultivation is concentrated on lands of mostly black communities or in forest reserves. Authorities claim that the activity is largely responsible for deforestation in the Amazon.
At a meeting between Petro and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken earlier this month, the two countries said they agreed with the plan to pursue a new anti-drug policy that goes beyond cracking down on producers and consumers.
The leftist leader has mainly spoken of the peasant populations that grow coca and describes them as victims of state repression. Thousands of leaf producers, at the end of the chain of activity, form part of the 17 thousand people arrested and convicted for drug trafficking, manufacturing or carrying narcotics.
Combating trafficking is just one of the government’s challenges. A survey released by the Invamer institute this Thursday shows Petro with 40% of disapproval – 20 percentage points more than two months ago. 1,200 Colombians were interviewed, and the survey has a margin of error of 3% up or down.
For 64% of respondents, the situation in the country has worsened in recent months, partly due to high inflation and unemployment, which reaches more than 10% of the economically active population.
Petro, this Wednesday (19), blamed Washington for the crisis in its economic policy: “The USA is practically ruining all the economies of the world”. According to the leftist, countries face recession threats aggravated by the interest rate set by the Fed (Federal Reserve, the American central bank) – in September, the rate was 0.75 percentage point.
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