All-time high coca production
Colombia faces need to address surge following UN report
BOGOTA: A United Nations report said that cultivation of the plant used to make cocaine has reached an all-time high in Colombia, adding pressure on President Ivan Duque to resume an aerial spraying programme suspended by his predecessor over health concerns.
Annual data released by the UN indicates Colombian coca cultivation increased 17% to 171,000ha in 2017.
This could mean cocaine production grew by an estimated 31% to 1,379 metric tonnes.
The findings, based on satellite imagery and on-the-ground verification, track with those of a White House report earlier this year.
Colombia is a top US ally in Latin America, but the boom in coca production has tested relations between the two nations.
US President Donald Trump recently threatened to decertify Colombia as a partner in the war on drugs if it failed to reverse course.
Duque, when he took office last month, identified the coca surge as a national security risk.
Officials have since said they want to resume aerial spraying of herbicide that was ended by former President Juan Manuel Santos three years ago amid peace talks with leftist rebels who were heavily involved in the drug trade.
But jumpstarting the programme will require taking on a constitutional court ruling that places strict limits on the use of the herbicide glyphosate.
Some drug policy experts have also questioned the wisdom of bringing back the costly programme when drug production has migrated to areas off-limits to spraying, like national parks.
“Our goal is to show dramatic results in the next four years,” Duque said on Wednesday after a meeting with his top military command.
One solution under study by military officials is the use of drones, which fly at a lower altitude, preventing chemicals from drifting and destroying legal crops.
But longer term, experts say, there is no substitute for the costlier, more dangerous and time-consuming work of building up state institutions in long-neglected rural areas and providing peasant farmers with economically viable legal alternatives.
As in years past, the bulk of coca production in 2017 was concentrated in Colombia’s southern region.
Coca cultivation in Narino province alone surpassed 45,735ha – more than the entire amount found in Peru, the world’s second-largest cocaine supplier after Colombia.
The UN said the increased supply has so far not resulted in any major drop in cocaine prices globally, although purity levels have risen considerably. — AP