Petro government will not succeed in war on drug trafficking, US State Department official assures

in the middle of a hearing before the United States Senate Foreign Relations Committee, THEAssistant Secretary for Western Hemisphere Affairs at the Department of State, Brian Nichols, questioned the edrug war focus who pushes the government of Colombian President Gustavo Petro.

He Republican lawmaker Jim Risch He asked Brian Nichols to talk to him about eradication of coca cultivation in Colombia in January 2023, to which the Undersecretary responded:

“President Petro said he wanted to reevaluate policies unlike previous administrations. And as part of that reassessment, I wanted to have a purely voluntary eradication policy, those discussions about how that’s going to work are ongoing and we think it is very difficult to succeed if there is no pressure to reduce crops (illegal), and above all, without the voluntary eradication program being in progress”.

To the above, Jim Risch replied: “It seems to me that it would be very difficult to say that there is no recurrence with this.”

It should be noted that one of the issues that has always worried the United States about Colombia is the war on drug trafficking and the eradication of coca leaf crops. he the Colombian ambassador in Washington, Luis Gilberto Murillo, commented The Colombian how were they caught in the United States that they did not carry out eradication operations in January.

Murillo underlined in this regard that the national government is committed against drugs, but are in the process of reviewing the policy on the fight against narcotics, Therefore, an agreement was reached with the United States to “apply a holistic method”.

“The fact that eradication levels decreased in January had more to do with a budget operating problem only with a political conception,” the Colombian ambassador to the United States, Luis Gilberto Murillo, told The Colombian.

The almost non-existent number of crops eliminated in January is concerning, as it is said that it could strengthen cartels and drug trafficking organizations, something Murillo disagrees with.

“Never. Voluntary crop substitution is enforced and arrests and extraditions have been made, Some extraditions were even politically visible and, despite this, the president carried them out. Here in the United States, it is understood that there is a frontal fight against drug trafficking and that we are fighting it together,” the ambassador told this media.

Colombia on Monday (March 13) requested a revision of the current classification that keeps coca leaf on the list of controlled substances during the sessions of the United Nations Commission on Narcotic Drugs being held in Vienna.

For Colombia, listing the coca leaf on the list of the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs in 1961 “constitutes a historic error against the indigenous peoples of the Andes”, former Colombian Deputy Minister of Multilateral Affairs Laura Gil said. during the general debate. .

“The plant is not the problem, it is part of our history and traditions,” Gil added, urging other countries to support his initiative.

“Colombia is tired of putting the dead and tired of persecuting its peasants in this war on drugs that has failed (…) It is obvious that in the countries where the consumer markets are, they demand without doing their go. They haven’t done enough to prevent the use of illicit substances,” Gil added in his speech in Vienna, Austria.