Petro clarifies that Colombia will continue destroying coca crops if there is no “voluntary substitution”.

The president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, has warned that his government will not completely eliminate the forced eradication of coca crops, as it will continue to be carried out in those places “where there are no voluntary substitution agreements”.

Petro advocated in his inauguration to rethink the current approach to the fight against drugs. In a series of messages published this Thursday on Twitter, he has bet on “immediately implementing” the National Comprehensive Crop Substitution Program (PNIS), as well as favoring the development of “licit” plantations.

He has also clarified that suspending aerial fumigation of crops, a tactic criticized for years for its indiscriminate nature, “is not permission to plant more coca plants” in Colombia.

The director of the National Police, Henry Sanabria Cely, assured this week in declarations to ‘El Tiempo’ that the security forces will not use glyphosate in their actions nor will they destroy plantations in a forced manner, while waiting for the new global strategy to be defined.

Colombia had already stopped using sprays to indiscriminately spray crops in 2015 due to health concerns about their use, but still continues to use workers who, under police custody, destroy plantations by hand.