Colombia’s police suspended forcibly eradicating coca, the base ingredient of cocaine.
The historic decision was announced by the director of the National Police, director General Henry Sanabria.
Authorities ended the aerial fumigation of coca because of the effects of public health and the environment in 2015.
In an interview with newspaper El Tiempo, Sanabria added that the counternarcotics unit was ordered to inform environmental authorities that police would not seek a resumption of aerial spraying.
According to Sanabria, the decision seeks to “guarantee that those who are least involved in the drug trade aren’t affected” by counternarcotics.
President Gustavo Petro, an outspoken critic of the so-called War on Drugs, previously ordered police to focus their attention on known drug trafficking hubs like seaports and certain land border regions.
The president has also vowed to resume the implementation of a 2016 peace deal, which seeks to reduce the production of cocaine with crop substitution programs for coca farmers.
The forced eradication and the aerial spraying of coca have been controversial counternarcotics strategies for decades because of their apparent lack of effectiveness.
Coca cultivation and eradication
According to the Defense Ministry, the security forces forcibly eradicated 336,585 hectares of coca between 2017 and 2020, but were only able to reduce the number of hectares used for coca cultivation by 28,000 hectares.
This is due to the fact that most coca farmers immediately replant their coca, which can be harvested multiple times a year, immediately after police eradication.
The militarized strategy of former President Ivan Duque was fiercely criticized because of its lack of effectiveness and the high cost when it came to killed policemen.
The police announcement to suspended the forced eradication of coca comes before Petro presented any policy proposal that would involve counternarcotics to Congress.
The president has consistently claimed that he would try to implement a “Total Peace” policy, which would include the dismantling of the illegal armed groups that are more active in the drug trade.