COLOMBIA
Growing and Growing
“Deeply concerned” about rising levels of coca production in Colombia, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo targeted a 50 percent drop in the cultivation of the plant used to make cocaine by 2023 in a meeting with Colombian President Ivan Duque this week.
But it’s hard to say how effective that pledge will be.
Despite around $400 million a year in US assistance, Colombia’s efforts to eradicate coca plantations have made little headway over the past four years – with the area under cultivation hitting record levels in 2017, the BBC reported.
Colombia says it eradicated 80,000 hectares of coca plantations in 2018, while some 171,000 hectares were under cultivation a year earlier, according to UN statistics. The government has vowed to eliminate another 100,000 hectares in 2019.
Though Pompeo acknowledged that cutting demand in the US was also essential to the eradication effort, he didn’t offer details on what actions the administration might take on that front.
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