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The South American country reached a new unprecedented mark, with some 204,000 hectares of coca leaf planted in 2021, according to the UN annual report released this Thursday. The largest producer of cocaine in the world “reports an increase of 43% in the area planted with coca in the country, going from 143,000 hectares (ha) in 2020 to 204,000 ha in 2021,” said the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).
A new historical record for drug crops was registered in Colombia with some 204,000 hectares of coca leaf planted in 2021, it determined. the annual report of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.
The area planted with coca leaves in Colombia increased by 43% in 2021 compared to the previous year, according to the United Nations. This is the highest figure recorded by the UN since it began monitoring in 2001.
Together with crops, cocaine production also increased, going from 1,010 tons to 1,400.
According to the report, the departments of Nariño and Putumayo, bordering Ecuador, are the area with the most drug crops, followed by El Catatumbo, a neighboring region of Venezuela.
For the Director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime for the Andean Region and Conosur, Candice Welsch, there are many reasons that explain this increase and one of them is the delay in the implementation of the peace agreements.
“We see changes in territorial control. There is also a concentration in the productive enclaves, where there is a significant increase in productivity. On the other hand, there is an increase in the global demand for cocaine. In addition, we note conditions of vulnerability in the territories, with poverty, violence, where the government is absent. To this must be added the groups active in the territories that resort to violence if the populations do not want to participate in the cultivation”, he underlines.
Welsch also defended some sustainable programs that have already been implemented in Colombia to reduce drug cultivation. “We can see that alternative development, accompanied by the presence of the State and public services, brings about very important changes. For example, the 41% that have had coca cultivation for the last ten years, are now coca-free,” he notes.
During the presentation of the report in Bogotá, the Minister of Justice, Néstor Osuna, insisted that this increase was a sign of the evident failure of the fight against drugs. Something that Colombian President Gustavo Petro has also stated, who has warned the United States that this policy needs a change.
Colombia remains by far the world’s largest producer of cocaine and the United States its main market.
