President Gustavo Petro announced that his government plans to buy coca from farmers while they are integrated into Colombia’s legal economy.
The announcement immediately spurred controversy, because of international legislation that criminalizes the buying and selling of the plant that, among other things, is used to produce cocaine.
“We are going to initiate the state purchase of the coca crop” in the village of El Plateado, where the military expelled guerrilla groups and drug traffickers earlier this month.
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Following the military operation, Petro said that the government would provide the locals with seeds of legal crops to replace the illegal economy that had been protected by the guerrillas for years.
They believe that what is normal for their lives is that their children do not go to school, but rather to the coca fields to harvest it, turn it into paste, sell it and be able to survive.
President Gustavo Petro
These legal crops could eventually substitute the illicit coca crops, but only after the former guerrilla stronghold is integrated into Colombia’s legal economy through the construction of roads and other basic infrastructure.
In the meantime, the government plans to guarantee the income the El Plateado resistents through the purchase of their coca crops, and seek additional relief for landless farmers in general.
Could it be that if these peasants had a better life, even without leaving their land, if there was an agrarian reform, if they had cheap credit, if the banks provided access to capital… if the North Americans, who are so interested in the problems of coca leaf crops, helped us to sell these legal products… wouldn’t we solve a problem in which the rivers of the Pacific could revive and the jungle with more biodiversity per square meter could exist for the benefit of all mankind?
President Gustavo Petro
Petro did not say whether his plan would replace former President Juan Manuel Santos’ crop substitution plan, which failed because the government failed to timely provide financial relief to farmers who had signed up for coca crop substitution.