"Coca has long been one of the few ways to earn a living on the Awa Indigenous reserve in Colombia's Narino department. But the little green leaf, no wider than a golf ball, has fuelled a deadly trade. It is the raw ingredient for cocaine, and Colombia is the drug's largest source, producing nearly 70 percent of the world's supply."
"For decades, Colombia had relied on aggressive military-led strategies and the forced eradication of coca crops. But Gustavo Petro, the country's first left-wing president, shifted tack. He moved away from forced eradication thought to disadvantage poor, rural farmers and instead emphasised voluntary crop replacement, while continuing to clamp down on drug traffickers. That strategy, however, has strained ties with one of Colombia's closest allies: the United States."
President Gustavo Petro shifted Colombia’s anti-drug approach from forced, military-led coca eradication to voluntary crop substitution while maintaining operations against drug traffickers. Many rural and Indigenous farmers participate in PNIS, uprooting coca as an alternative income strategy despite coca’s deep economic role, especially on the Awa reserve in Nariño. Coca provides the raw ingredient for cocaine; Colombia produces nearly 70 percent of global supply. The voluntary policy aims to avoid disadvantaging poor farmers but has caused tensions with the United States, where leaders press for more aggressive tactics. Petro travels to Washington amid scrutiny over the strategy’s effectiveness.
Read at www.aljazeera.com
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