Oscar Naranjo, director of the Colombian Police, said the country eradicated 220,000 hectares of coca crops in 2007, while the UN only reported 78,000.”There is great surprise and a series of concerns regarding the measurement system (of the UN),” Naranjo told the local press.According to the report of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), coca crops grew by 28 percent in 2007 despite eradication campaign.Naranjo added that the measurement system of the UN is based on information from a French satellite that stopped detecting the scale of illegal crops years ago.On Monday, the Colombian authorities said that the country has eradicated 31,000 hectares of coca crops since Jan. 2008, surpassing the amount eradicated in the same period of 2007.In internal report from Colombia’s Natural Monitoring system, leaked earlier this week to Colombian newspaper El Tiempo, the 220,000 hectares of crops were mentioned, but also said replanting went so fast the amount of cocafields was almost at its level of before the joint Colombo-Americano Plan Colombia. This report, that hasn’t been made public, allegedly spoke of a 25 percent growth.
