This Tuesday there was important news about the anti-drug policy in Colombia. Major General Henry Sanabria, director of the Police, announced that Forced eradication operations (glyphosate) of coca crops were suspended.
The new police director explained that they are looking forplicate voluntary eradication in certain places where we have had a field meeting of certain members of the institution and other State entities to motivate voluntary eradication and substitution.
You may be interested in: Fico Gutiérrez proposes his own Tax Reform to Petro: he asks that $15 billion less be collected
In this sense, General Sanabria assured that the National Police made a request to the National Agency for Environmental Licenses (Anla) not to continue the environmental permit to use glyphosate in these tasks.
The reactions to this decision have not been long in coming, especially from the staunchest opponents of the Petro Government. The former presidential candidate Federico Gutierrezannounced that he would exercise real opposition to the Government of Gustavo Petro since he does not agree with several of the proposals presented during the first weeks of his mandate.
This Tuesday, Gutiérrez was against the decision to stop the forced eradication, ensuring that with this decision the country will drown in drugs.
“Today we swim in drugs, but what will come with this decision, it will be a drug Tsunami that will drown Colombia ?? in more violence. We are going the wrong way,” wrote the former mayor of Medellín.
Coca cultivation figures in Colombia
In 2021, Colombia had a total of 234,000 hectares of coca leaf cultivated, compared to 245,000 in 2020, which implies a decrease of about 11,000 hectares, which represents 4.5% less, according to the annual report of the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP).
You may be interested in: “They are the ‘change’ for the worse”: Fico Gutiérrez to the Historical Pact
The monitoring system also revealed that Colombia surpasses Peru and Bolivia, which ranked second and third in coca production, respectively. Colombia heads the list with a total of 972 tons, followed by Peru with 785 tons, and finally, Bolivia with 317 tons.
