() — Colombia increased its levels of coca cultivation to historic levels in 2021, according to the report of the Integrated Illicit Crop Monitoring System (SIMCI) of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), posted this week.
Coca is known as the main ingredient of the illegal drug cocaine.
The report noted that there was “an increase of 43% in the area planted with coca in the country, going from 143,000 hectares in 2020 to 204,000 hectares in 2021.” It also added that the potential production of cocaine hydrochloride also reached its historical maximum of 1,400 tons, maintaining the upward trend since 2014.
The report pointed out that in previous years a reduction in the coca cultivation area was reported, largely associated with the intervention of forced eradication, but there were difficulties in sustaining this method.
A Raspachin (coca leaf collector) works in a coca crop in Catatumbo, Norte de Santander department, Colombia, on August 20, 2022. (Photo by Raul ARBOLEDA/AFP) (Photo by RAUL ARBOLEDA/AFP via Getty Images)
The UNODC report indicates that most of the concentration and permanence of coca crops is on the borders and with direct access to the sea, where illegal armed groups, drug traffickers and producers converge in these enclaves.
Territorial vulnerability increases the global demand for cocaine and the dynamics of illegal drug trafficking actors, the report adds.
“In order to better understand the problem of illicit drugs in the country, it is necessary to generate more and better technical evidence that covers the entire drug trafficking chain, applying differential approaches, aimed at supporting the design and implementation of new intervention strategies in the territories affected. for coca crops,” reported the UNODC.
