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Petro said at a cabinet meeting that his government will seek to
eradicate 25,000 hectares of coca in the Catatumbo region within
140 days, as part of an effort to decrease violence and weaken
rebel groups that profit from the cocaine trade. The region has
approximately 55,000 hectares of coca crops and is one of
Colombia's main producers of cocaine.
Petro said farmers in Catatumbo will eradicate their coca
plantings voluntarily and will be paid by the government while
they transition to legal crops. He added that the Colombian
military will continue to operate against rebels in the region
while the government will try to improve roads that enable
farmers to get legal crops to markets.
“Peace in Colombia depends on the voluntary decision of farmers
who grow coca to eradicate their crops,” Petro said in the
meeting.
In January, more than 36,000 people were displaced from their
homes in Catatumbo, a mountainous region of around 400,000
people that straddles the border with Venezuela.
Rebels from the National Liberation Army, or ELN, launched
coordinated attacks against civilians they accused of being
collaborators of a rival group known as the FARC-EMC.
An estimated 80 people were killed in the attacks, which
prompted Colombia’s government to suspend peace talks with the
ELN and declare a 90-day emergency that allows it to limit some
civil liberties in the area without congressional approval.
Petro has accused the rebels of trying to take over the region
to control its coca crops and its drug-trafficking routes.
Cocaine production in Colombia has been rising since 2013,
according to the U.N. Office on Drug and Crime. It reported in
October that cultivation of coca bushes increased by 10% in
Colombia in 2023, while potential cocaine production increased
53% from the previous year.
A 2016 peace agreement between the Colombian government and the
nation’s largest rebel group, the FARC, aimed to curb coca
cultivation in rural areas.
But in some rural areas, smaller armed groups have filled the
power vacuum left by the FARC, actively promoting the lucrative
cocaine trade.
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