The US launches a new strategy to combat drugs in Colombia

USA announced a new strategy to combat drugs on Colombia, which will have as pillars the reduction of production, the development of rural areas and the protection of the environment.

The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) explained in a statement the details of the initiative, the product of a joint working group to fight narcotics.

To reduce supply, the United States wants efforts against money laundering and to eradicate drugs, ban them, reduce their demand, and destroy processing laboratories to be linked to actions to bring drug traffickers to justice.

Regarding the security and development of the rural environment, the initiative advocates promoting them with the implementation of the peace agreement that the Colombian Government reached in 2016 with the extinct FARC guerrilla, in addition to investing in these areas and facilitating access to the Justice.

This includes, the ONDCP noted, protecting community leaders who promote law enforcement, reducing dependence on coca crops, expanding regulation of land titles, and modifying the way the United States and Colombia they measure your progress in this area.

In addition, Washington will assist Bogotá in its efforts to monitor and combat environmental crimes committed by drug trafficking groups.

At this point, both will bet on measures such as the restoration of tropical forests and the elimination of both areas planted with coca crops and shelters for laboratories, among others.

The ONDCP statement does not mention a controversial measure that Colombia wants to resume, such as the forced eradication of illicit crops by aerial spraying of glyphosate, which has been suspended in the country since 2015 by an order of the Constitutional Court, after recognizing the consequences. adverse for the health of this practice.

Former US President Donald Trump (2017-2021) intensified pressure on Colombia to resume spraying with this herbicide and the line seems to continue with his successor, Joe Biden, since his government certified Colombia on March 1 in the fight against the drug trafficking and supported aerial spraying.

During his trip to Colombia between October 20 and 21, the US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, did not refer to that controversial decision by the Colombian authorities.

During his stay in Bogotá, Blinken assured that in order to fight drug trafficking, the roots of the problem must be addressed, such as inequality or “reducing the demand in the United States, which is fueling all the illicit activity.”

According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), coca cultivation in Colombia was reduced in 2020 to 143,000 hectares, 7% less than the area planted in 2019.