Anti-narcotics police from Colombia and Peru will synchronize manual eradication of illicit crops, such as coca, in border zones between the neighboring countries in December.
General Luis Perez Alvaran, the anti-narcotics police director, explained, “Particularly with Peru we are planning the manual eradication of coca plants, simultaneously on the border, where we have detected around 200 hectares [495 acres] of illicit crops.”
The general went on to say that the bilateral collaboration seeks to strengthen the fight against drug trafficking from Bolivia, Ecuador, Peru, and Colombia – countries of the Andean Community of Nations (CAN).
The project will include 90 men working as manual eradicators on behalf of the Social Action Office of the President, who will be supported and protected by members of the police force in order to avoid violence and conflict.
The director of the Peruvian anti-narcotics police, General Dario Hurtado Cardenas, said that 20 days ago in Puerto Leguizamo, in the Colombian department of Putumayo a preliminary meeting was held in order to identify the coordinates of the areas where illicit crops were being cultivated in the Upper Putumayo region.
“In Peru we have a setback at this point, which is the fuel for our helicopters in this area, but we hope to overcome this episode and start eradicating in the month of December,” Cardenas said regarding the delay of the project.
The official also asserted that the crops were “surely grown by Colombian and Ecuadorean small-scale farmers, but there are no guerrillas on Peruvian land.”