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Petro’s policy on drug trafficking failed and, instead of recognizing his mistake, he flees forward.
The Ministry of Defense reported a 66% decrease in coca eradication until September of this year. There are only 4,504 hectares. The already low goal of 10,000 that the government had set for 2024 will not be met, after last year it plummeted to 20,323, less than a third of the 68,893 eradicated in 2022.
On Friday, the executive summary of the report on the United Nations illicit crops monitoring system was released several months late. It shows that coca crops increased 10%, from 230,000 hectares in 2022 to ending 2023 with 253,000. Cocaine production figures are worse. They grew by 53% to reach 2,664 tons, by far the highest figure in history.
Opinion
When an official reaction from the government about the failure of his policy (or lack thereof) was expected, Petro announced that the government will buy the coca crop from Micay, in Cauca.
It is essential to make some clarifications. It is not true that what was done before in the fight against drug trafficking was a failure, as many maintain without sticking to the facts. Actually, it was a success. The first Simci report, from 2001, showed 137,000 hours of coca. By 2013, before the signing of the drug trafficking component with the FARC, only 48,000 hours were reported, 65% less, and cocaine production had decreased to 290 tons. Colombia, by that year, was no longer the country with the most coca in the world.
The disaster came later, first due to the “new paradigm” agreed upon with the FARC which, in addition, established perverse incentives for planting and, later, the debacle, with Petro, who not only gave up fighting against drug trafficking but He makes decisions again and again that favor the gangsters.
Those who defend the government say that it is right to focus on seizures and that these have grown. According to the MinDefensa, they increased from 659 tons in 2022 to 746 last year. But there are two problems. One, serious, is the lack of certainty in the figure. There are statements from the then commanders of the Navy and the Anti-Narcotics Directorate of the Police where they recognize that they are adding seizures made outside of Colombian territory and by authorities from other countries when, according to them, they were the result of information provided by the Colombian Public Force .
Two, although seizures increase, cocaine production grows much more. To put it in perspective, seizures grew by 87 t and the cocaine produced added an additional 738 t, 8.5 times more. If the MinDefensa figure were true, seizures grew by 13% while cocaine production increased by 53%. In fact, proportionally much less cocaine is seized today than before. The disaster is in sight.
The solution, of course, is not to acquire Micay’s coke. To begin with, because such a thing only constitutes another perverse incentive for planting: it ensures a reliable buyer, the government. Then, because when buying Micay’s coca the government, in order not to arbitrarily favor only some, would also have to buy that of the rest of Cauca, Nariño, Putumayo, Catatumbo, etc.
Furthermore, there is no silver, according to the tax accounts and the government itself. There is no budget item either, by the way. Finally, because the proposal is legally unfeasible. Today the purchase of coca is a crime. Coca planting is only legal in some reservations as part of the identity of certain indigenous populations, according to the Constitutional Court. Furthermore, the coca leaf is on the list of substances subject to international control and Colombia is obliged to comply with the Vienna Convention of 1961. Petro may not like that treaty, but it is in force and must be complied with.
By the way, although it announced it, Colombia did not raise its desire for the coca leaf to be removed from that list to the United Nations Commission on Narcotic Drugs, nor did it present to Congress its idea of ”regulating the alternative uses of coca plants.” ”. He only asked for extraordinary powers to legislate as he pleases and they were denied.
At the same time that Petro’s actions on drug trafficking not only ruin but strengthen the business, the gangsters celebrate. Largely due to the income from their symbiotic relationship with drug trafficking, violent groups expand throughout the territory. Every government decision that strengthens the violent, feeds the drug traffickers. Every policy that favors drug traffickers strengthens the violent ones. In the enclave areas and their surroundings, 15 throughout the country, sovereignty is a fiction. They are in the hands of illegals. This is also why “total peace” fails. There will be no government gifts, impunity and political, economic and judicial benefits for the bandits that will be enough.
And meanwhile, the terrible impacts of drug trafficking on the environment and public health and the serious distortions it generates in the economy will continue to grow, and the ethical collapse of many sectors of Colombian society will continue to deepen. The idea of quick and easy money, even if the law is violated, prevails among many. The only ones who win are the criminals and some others who, like Nicolás and Juan Fernando, do business with them.
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The post Un colapso anuncio appeared first on Minuto30.
2024-10-20 06:12:00
#announcement #collapse
