[RSS][Colombia] Colombia ends forced eradication of coca after US urges “more aggressive action”

[RSS]

Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro aid Wednesday that the security forces would never again forcibly eradicate coca, after his US counterpart Donald Trump demanded “more aggressive action.”

In a televised address, Petro made it clear that he had no intention to give in to US demands after Trump revoked Colombia’s certification as a cooperative partner in his country’s drug policy.

According to the president, the decertification was “an injustice, a profound insult to the country that has shed the most blood so that society in the United States and Europe does not consume so much cocaine.”

Petro added that he considered the US claim that the decertification was solely due to his leadership as a personal insult.

“If any political leader since [late presidential candidate Luis Carlos] Galan has fought against drug trafficking, it’s been me, at the cost of living in constant insecurity, facing assassination attempts, and enduring constant persecution against me and my family,” said the president.

According to Petro, Trump decided to ignore the facts and instead listened to members of a “far-right ideological alliance” between “drug traffickers and Colombian politicians” with great influence in Florida.

“They preferred this ideology over the truth,” said the president.

What the US political elite calls a drug policy or a war on drugs is in fact “a war against the peoples of the Third World,” according to Petro.

You have done nothing to reduce consumption, but instead allowed it to transform into something worse, from cocaine to fentanyl. This is why you now have 3,000 deaths from cocaine overdoses and what you get is 100,000 deaths a year from fentanyl… What does this show, Mr. Trump? That your entire 50-year anti-drug policy has failed, failed, and I repeat again, failed. Your war has been defeated by the mafia and drug trafficking.
President Gustavo Petro
The president said that he only agreed to the forced eradication of coca because of a “stupid obligation” and in spite of overwhelming evidence suggesting that this strategy is ineffective and comes at a great human cost.

Shamefully, there were 13 deaths [ among police] in 2025 for agreeing to the request to begin forced eradication, which was a mistake and I will not do it again. Forced eradication kills police in Colombia… Thirteen deaths for taking US policy seriously.
President Gustavo Petro
Instead, said Petro, his government will continue with voluntary eradication programs that allow coca farmers to substitute their coca for legal crops.

Because he ignored the US Government, “today, the increase in coca is almost at 0%,” said Petro.

The president also said that he would not extradite “all the narco-terrorists without conditions,” as demanded by the US’ acting ambassador to Bogota, John Macnamara.

There have already been 400 extraditions to the United States. I am not extraditing three because they are in peace processes, and Colombian law allows me to suspend extradition while they make peace. If they do not make peace, they will be extradited. It’s that simple.
President Gustavo Petro
“The president obeys to Colombian law, not the orders of foreign governments,” Petro said earlier on social media platform X.

“In the end,” the president said, “it’s at the United Nations where the most important decisions are made about counternarcotics policy,” not in the US, “the world’s biggest cocaine consumer and the world’s biggest fentanyl consumer.”

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Source: https://colombiareports.com/colombia-en ... ve-action/