Colombia’s deputy justice minister addressed the U.N. conference of the parties to the Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, and sets out progress on eradicating coca.
According to Pablo Felipe Robledo, “Colombia has strong results in its fight against drug trafficking that should be revealed to the world. Ten years ago, 163,000 hectares of coca were sound on our territory. Now there are 68,000 hectares, which is a 60% reduction. Ten years ago there werer 7,350 hectares of of poppies, today no more than 250, which allows us to conclude that in Colombia, poppy has virtually disappeared.”
These figures were first made public in April.
Robledo was invited to speak in Vienna at the U.N. conference.
Colombia is long-known as the world’s number-one producer of coca, which has fueled the armed conflict between state, leftist guerrillas and right-wing paramilitary groups. The country’s U.S.-backed fight against drug trafficking and leftist guerrillas reduced coca production to a level close to that of neighbor Peru.