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✅ EEUU suspende la vigilancia satelital de los cultivos de coca en Colombia

EEUU suspende monitoreo satelital de cultivos de coca en Colombia

MIAMI, USA — The government of President Joe Biden has quietly abandoned a key indicator used for decades to measure success in the fight against drugs by suspending satellite monitoring of coca crops in Colombia amid an increase in cocaine production in South America. A spokesperson for the State Department stated that the measure was «temporary», but did not give a timeline for the resumption of data collection or explain why it was suspended. It is also unknown whether satellite studies will continue in Peru and Bolivia, which together account for approximately half of coca production in the Andean region. The measure, first reported by the Colombian newspaper El Tiempo, has sparked outrage among Republicans in the Florida Congress, who have been urging the president to decertify the Colombian government for not cooperating with US anti-narcotics efforts. However, it aligns with the campaign of Colombian leftist president Gustavo Petro to refocus law enforcement activities away from rural areas where coca is grown, and instead target large-scale drug traffickers and money launderers who make most of the profits from the drug trade. «We constantly evaluate the effectiveness of various anti-narcotics measures and make changes to our efforts as necessary,» said the US State Department spokesperson in an emailed statement. The spokesperson made the statements on condition of anonymity, as per agency policies. «We continue to work with the Colombian government in monitoring illicit coca crops». Since at least 1987, the US government has published annual estimates of coca cultivation in Colombia. The figures reached a record high in 2020, when the Office of National Drug Control Policy estimated that 245,000 hectares of land— an area equivalent to three times the size of New York City— were planted with the illicit crop used to produce cocaine. Last year’s report revealed that production hardly changed in 2021 compared to the same high level. In the first five months of 2023, the Petro government has manually eradicated only 4,511 hectares of coca, nearly 90% less than the 33,454 hectares eradicated during the same period a year ago, when conservative president Iván Duque was still in power. While US authorities have not commented on what prompted the policy change, Republicans have seized on it to attack Petro, a former guerrilla, at a time when he seeks to improve ties with the socialist government of Venezuela and seeks an agreement with the National Liberation Army, the last leftist insurgency still operating in Colombia. «This is a gift for the Petro government,» said Florida Senator Marco Rubio, vice chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and senior member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, in a statement to The Associated Press. «It is another example of how the Biden administration is making concessions to far-left governments in the region.» Petro has rejected those criticisms, claiming that the United States would do well to refocus its attention on the fentanyl crisis, which is blamed for tens of thousands of overdose deaths. «Things change,» he tweeted this week in response to attacks by Representative María Elvira Salazar, a Miami Republican who chairs the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Without directly addressing questions about the future of US cocaine monitoring, he said that «the structure of narcotics consumption is changing for the worse, reducing the demand for cocaine, which is starting to flow to other parts of the planet.» Adam Isacson, director of defense oversight at the Washington Office on Latin America, said that satellite monitoring of coca crops provides valuable information on Colombia’s ability to reassert state control in remote and economically depressed areas that have long been controlled by illegal armed groups. But as a tool for estimating cocaine flows, it is less reliable than other measures that have remained largely stable in recent years, such as data on cocaine purity, street prices, and overdose deaths. Additionally, the United Nations, in conjunction with Colombian authorities, annually conducts its own survey of coca cultivation, which combines satellite data with on-the-ground verification. Still, he suspects that politics may have also played a role in the US decision to suspend operations. «If you put a lot of weight on hectares, you’re heading for a collision with the Petro government, which doesn’t want eradication to be the centerpiece of its anti-narcotics strategy,» he explained. «The United States may be calculating that it doesn’t need such a big sore point with its closest military ally in the hemisphere.» The Biden administration has sought to carefully downplay political differences with Colombia’s first leftist government when it comes to narcotics, trade, negotiations with armed rebel groups, and sanctions against the socialist government of Venezuela, and has instead emphasized more than two decades of close bilateral cooperation. The diplomatic strategy has yielded some positive results. Petro visited the White House in April and spoke with Biden about a common agenda to combat climate change and address migration. A few days later, Washington announced that it will open a migrant processing center in Colombia to deal with a growing number of migrants from Venezuela and other parts of South America trying to enter the United States. «We are going down the same river, a river that leads us to greater democracy and greater freedom,» Petro said at the White House. The spokesperson for the US State Department affirmed that disrupting cocaine trafficking remains a «high priority» because it fuels violence, crime, and death throughout the hemisphere. The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, which publishes an annual report on coca crop monitoring in July, did not respond to a request for comment. Connect with Voice of America! Subscribe to our YouTube channel and activate notifications, or follow us on social media: Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Fuente de TenemosNoticias.com: www.vozdeamerica.com

Publicado el: 2023-07-14 09:14:18
En la sección: América Latina – Voice of America

Publicado en Latinoamérica