BOGOTA. – The president of Colombia, Gustavo Petroassured this Tuesday, October 28, that drug crops in Colombia “only increased 3%” in 2024. He said this in the midst of tensions with USA due to the high production of cocaine.
With this measurement, there are 262,000 hectares of drug crops in the country, as indicated by the president this Tuesday, October 28, via X.
Petro, who is now on tour in Qatar, is in a confrontation with his American counterpart, Donald Trump, in a war of words that has been escalating.
Trump stated that Petro “does nothing to stop” the increase in drug production in his country, “despite large-scale payments and subsidies from the United States.”
UN report anticipated
This Tuesday, the former leftist guerrilla anticipated the publication of the United Nations annual report on coca leaf crops, the main component of the drug and which is usually published in the middle of the year.
Petro said that some 80,000 hectares that will appear in the 2024 report “have been abandoned for more than three years” and 22,000 are in the process of being removed as part of a crop substitution program. He also claimed that consumer countries like the United States are not making efforts to reduce demand.
“The enclave areas are maintained due to the increase in cocaine consumption in Europe, the cities of the southern cone and Australia,” he indicated.
According to the Colombian president, the 2023 UN report had methodological errors, as it contemplated thousands of hectares of coca that are not being used in the drug trafficking chain.
Amid pressure from Washington, the United Nations proposed that the Colombian government implement a new measurement strategy, recognizing that its data was “limited.”
In addition, Gustavo Petro announced an anti-drug operation near Europe that has resulted in the seizure of almost eight tons of cocaine and the arrest of 38 people. All of this “without a single death,” the president added.
The Colombian president leads the rejection in the region of the attacks by US forces against “drug boats” in the Pacific and the Caribbean, which so far have left at least 57 dead.
Clinton List
Last week, the United States government included President Petro on the so-called “Clinton List”, reserved for people and entities that allegedly have ties to drug production or trafficking.
The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) also included the first lady, Verónica Alcocer, her son Nicolás Petro and the Minister of the Interior, Armando Benedetti, on its “blacklist.”
According to US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, “President Petro has allowed drug cartels to thrive and has refused to stop this activity.”
