BOGOTA – Colombian President Gustavo Petro introduced a plan Monday to cut back coca planting in a northeastern area rattled by rebel attacks by paying farmers whereas they change to authorized crops.
Petro stated at a cupboard assembly that his authorities will search to eradicate 25,000 hectares of coca within the Catatumbo area inside 140 days, as a part of an effort to lower violence and weaken insurgent teams that revenue from the cocaine commerce. The area has roughly 55,000 hectares of coca crops and is one among Colombia’s foremost producers of cocaine.
Petro stated farmers in Catatumbo will eradicate their coca plantings voluntarily and will likely be paid by the federal government whereas they transition to authorized crops. He added that the Colombian navy will proceed to function in opposition to rebels within the area whereas the federal government will attempt to enhance roads that allow farmers to get authorized crops to markets.
“Peace in Colombia depends upon the voluntary determination of farmers who develop coca to eradicate their crops,” Petro stated within the assembly.
In January, greater than 36,000 individuals have been displaced from their houses in Catatumbo, a mountainous area of round 400,000 people who straddles the border with Venezuela.
Rebels from the Nationwide Liberation Military, or ELN, launched coordinated assaults in opposition to civilians they accused of being collaborators of a rival group referred to as the FARC-EMC.
An estimated 80 individuals have been killed within the assaults, which prompted Colombia’s authorities to droop peace talks with the ELN and declare a 90-day emergency that enables it to restrict some civil liberties within the space with out congressional approval.
Petro has accused the rebels of making an attempt to take over the area to regulate its coca crops and its drug-trafficking routes.
Cocaine manufacturing in Colombia has been rising since 2013, in accordance with the U.N. Workplace on Drug and Crime. It reported in October that cultivation of coca bushes elevated by 10% in Colombia in 2023, whereas potential cocaine manufacturing elevated 53% from the earlier 12 months.
A 2016 peace settlement between the Colombian authorities and the nation’s largest insurgent group, the FARC, aimed to curb coca cultivation in rural areas.
However in some rural areas, smaller armed teams have stuffed the facility vacuum left by the FARC, actively selling the profitable cocaine commerce.
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