Colombia continues to be the largest producer of coca leaf in the world, according to the Global Report on Cocaine presented annually by the United Nations. In addition, according to data from the Colombian government, cocaine seizures have reached 50 million tons, in a new approach to the drug policy that seeks to reduce the production and capacities of criminal organizations.
In that sense, the voice of america spoke with the Minister of Justice, Néstor Osuna, about the new turn of the United States towards Colombia in the war against drugs by suspending the monitoring of coca crops in the country and the consumption of fentanyl, a synthetic drug that has claimed the lives of 110,000 people in the US in the last year.
Likewise, Osuna spoke with VOA about the bill for the humanization of prisons, which could allow some prisoners to release pressure for certain periods of time. Likewise, he provided details of the agrarian jurisdiction, a mechanism that seeks to resolve land conflicts in the country.
WOW: Why did the US decide to suspend the monitoring of drug crops in Colombia?
Osuna: It is a decision of the United States, as the United States embassy in our country has informed us, it is due to a change in the agencies that carry out the monitoring and that they have decided to suspend it this year, that means that in later years it will be they can go ahead again.
The form of a change in drug policy is also true, just as in the country we have changed that traditional, punitive, prohibitionist and war drug policy, the United States is doing the same, they have new concerns, so that monitoring is not an essential part of the strategy to deal with drugs, but there are already two monitors, one carried out by the United Nations and the one carried out by the police, from which the United Nations draws in large part and also fed the United States report. So it is an internal decision that of course we respect and that does not affect drug policy at all.
WOW: Is the money that the United States contributes to Colombia going to change because of this decision by the United States to suspend the monitoring of illicit crops?
Osuna: The economic collaboration that the United States provides to Colombia to address drug issues and other issues is permanent, fluid, and is expected to continue. That may have variations for their reasons, but it is not linked to monitoring.
WOW: How is Colombia going to manage the eradication of coca leaf crops?
Osuna: Our drug policy is focused on pursuing cocaine, cocaine money, money laundering, and large drug traffickers, medium-sized drug traffickers, and mafiosi, that is, what drug trafficking really is. Our seizure figures this year have very good figures, the number of cocaine production laboratories that have been destroyed this year in Colombia is historically high, the captures of drug traffickers are higher than those of previous years.
Regarding eradication, which is not the center of this policy, we are betting on prioritization, eradicating some crops forcibly and convincing communities to voluntarily substitute their crops, so of course we will continue eradicating, but it is not the central axis of our drug proposal.
WOW: Fentanyl is beginning to represent a global problem in the fight against drugs. What has the US told you about this drug to which the cartels are beginning to move?
Osuna: It is a mutual concern, in all the conversations with the US authorities and in the official trips we have made to Washington the concern is enormous, not only from them, because their use of fentanyl has skyrocketed, but from Colombia where it is also consumed , and where it obeys geographical coordinates different from those of cocaine. This has allowed us to think about mutual collaboration strategies to deal with consumption, to look at public health policies, prevention policies, in that we have to help each other because the consumption of fentanyl really affects health very severely and with a very high risk of death.
WOW: What is the panorama of fentanyl in Colombia? Are there cartels dedicated to the production and commercialization of this opioid in the country?
Osuna: International fentanyl trafficking does not have a specific reference in Colombia. Colombia does not appear in the international drug trafficking chain regarding fentanyl. Our police authorities are investigating if the fentanyl that is consumed in the country is manufactured here or if it is introduced, but there is no fentanyl traffic that goes through Colombia for export and we will try to keep it that way.
WOW: How important is the presence of Mexican cartels in Colombia?
Osuna: Criminal structures do not recognize borders, they have no interest in respecting that, therefore, we know that there is a presence of cartels and criminal structures from other countries, not only from the sister country of Mexico, which has so many good things and we love so much, but yes there are criminal structures in which there is a presence of these groups and also from other countries.
WOW: The project of subjugation of illegal organizations that do not have political status to negotiate peace is very important in the framework of the “total peace” policy of President Gustavo Petro, this is known as the “submission law”, which seeks the dismantling high-impact criminal groups, and in which the State agrees to impose alternative prison sentences between six and eight years of effective prison, in exchange for these organizations dedicated to crime delivering reparation and truth to their victims, what What awaits the bill to submit to justice in Congress?
Osuna: The government is betting precisely on ending this problem of criminal structures that have caused us so much pain and suffering with a strategy that goes to two sides, on the one hand, the actions of the police, the military forces and the judges, and, on the other hand, an offer, which, as you mentioned, is an offer to reduce sentences in exchange not only for the truth, but for assuming responsibility, that is, it is not an amnesty or pardon, it is a reduction in sentences in the they have to assume responsibility and delivery of goods and delivery of information about their activities.
So the Colombian state needs a law, a legal tool that allows collective deliveries and collective trials for these cases, that is why this law is necessary because for the delivery of an individual person from these groups and to make some reduction because Collaborate with justice We already have laws, so the novelty of this law is that it allows the complete dismantling of the criminal structure.
WOW: Does the project to submit to justice include the FARC dissidents or will you definitely see a different treatment with these groups with a peace process?
Osuna: This law is designed for those criminal structures that do not have a political reference, groups that act with the intention of doing illegal business. The group you mention (FARC dissidents) is a group of a political nature, so it does not fall under this law, but another legal framework will be considered.
WOW: What is the project for the humanization of prisons with which they seek to change the policy for the treatment of convicts?
Osuna: This government found itself with a prison situation on the verge of collapse because for 20 years or more it had been implementing a strategy of increasing sentences, creating new crimes, and decreasing benefits, as a consequence of rampant punitive populism, without that coming accompanied by a budget for the creation of new prisons, better prisons and for the prisons to be useful for something. We find ourselves with a terrible overcrowding problem because prisons do not fulfill the purpose of resocializing so that when a person leaves prison they have very little chance of reoffending.
So our idea has been to change that state of affairs and make prisons serve what they should really serve, that they are places of punishment, that’s clear, but that they also serve to re-socialize, places where people are working or studying. so that they acquire work habits and learn a new trade to leave there with some skill or knowledge that they did not have when they entered and allow them to reintegrate into society. That is why we will insist on the project so that in this second legislature it can go ahead and be approved.
WOW: The Colombian Senate approved the project that creates the Agrarian and Rural Jurisdiction, a point that is part of the implementation of the peace agreement that was signed with the FARC guerrillas in November 2016. The only thing that remains pending is the establishment of the structure, its its operation and powers. Why is this law so important?
Osuna: The law seeks to bring courts of course to territories far from Bogotá, where there has been a strong conflict over land, so that in a simple, easy procedure, with almost no formalities, conflicts that have historically been resolved within the law are reasonably resolved. They have been resolved violently because the land conflict in Colombia accompanies the entire history of our country and has been resolved in war and by bullets.
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