“We are very close to achieve the 50% reduction on cocaine production which was stated by the Plan Colombia eight or nine years ago” the representative for the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime Aldo Lale-Demoz said.

Bogota, June 19 (SP). The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (Unodc) reported this Friday a reduction of 28% on cocaine production and 18% on cocaine crops in Colombia and highlighted that these rates show the work of the Government. 

“This is really important news and it is going to have a lot of impact: there has been a reduction of 18% comparing to last year on cocaine crops” Director of Unodc Aldo Lale-Demoz said, after a meeting with the National Council of Narcotics, led by President Álvaro Uribe Vélez, at the Casa de Nariño.

Lale-Demoz pointed that cocaine crops diminished 81 thousand hectares in 2008 and highlighted that for the first time in ten years, since the Integrated System of Crops Monitoring (Simci) is working; the proportion of crops area is smaller and gradually diminishing compared to the Andean region.

At the presentation of the survey on cocaine crops monitoring for 2008, he expressed that “if there is 160.000 hectares of cocaine crops in the Andean region, less than the half are in Colombia”.

In 1999 Colombia itself had 160.000 hectares; now in the three Andean countries (Colombia, Peru y Bolivia) are 167.000 hectares, he said.

According to Lale-Demoz, “what is clear is that this year Colombia is exporting 170 metric tons less than the last year. This is going to be a very important fact for the main consumer markets: United States and Europe”.

He added that with these results “the work of the Government is evident, the work of alternative development programs”.

He expressed that this result is “really forceful for many people who think, believe or argue that policies for drug control are not working. They do work”.

Lale-Demoz explained that the most important reduction was registered in Meta, Putumayo and Antioquia. Meta Department reduced its crops 47% compared to the last period.

Less production and deforestation

He pointed that “the area is not the only thing that reduced in a significant way, productivity is also reducing. This means that each hectare is producing less cocaine in these three Departments”.

In addition, the deforestation caused by cocaine crops is descending after a peak in 2006 and 2007.

The director of Unodc for Colombia underlined that in those places where the Armed Forces are in, as the Macarena; there has been a radical diminishment of coca crops.

“We are very close to achieve the 50% reduction on cocaine production which was stated by the Plan Colombia eight or nine years ago”, he said.

In the annual survey of Unodc, Antonio María Costa, global director of this organization, highlights that “Colombia is making tremendous efforts to contain its cocaine problem at the source. It would be helped if the biggest cocaine markets would pay as much attention to reducing demand”.