British News Agency

Colombian President Gustavo Petro made statements regarding coca production data presented by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and drug policy issues with the United States.

Petro said that the concept of potential cocaine production used in production measurements does not reflect reality, adding: “This indicator can only be valid if all coca leaf cultivation areas are presented separately. They exaggerate the figures by generalizing indices from high-productivity areas to low-productivity ones. This is done to legitimize the argument for forced eradication carried out through the use of glyphosate.”

Speaking about data from the period of former President Iván Duque, Petro emphasized that the 2021 claim that “130,000 hectares were eradicated” contradicts satellite maps.

Stating that a radical change has been made in the anti-drug strategy, Petro said: “I turned the policy of forced eradication into voluntary eradication. I built strong alliances not with mafias, but with farmers who have suffered from this issue with their own blood for half a century. This indifference in statistical science by the UNODC is also at the core of the dispute between me and President Donald Trump.”