Unsold blocks of coca paste are piling up across Colombia and it’s the families that pick the raw coca leaves that are suffering most.
Those who live in this community in the central part of the country rise early nearly every morning to pick coca leaf, scraping brittle branches, sometimes until their hands bleed. Later, they mix the leaves with petrol and other chemicals to make chalky white bricks of coca paste.The New York Times
The changing dynamics have led to blocks of unsold coca paste piling up across Colombia. The purchase of the paste in more than half of the country’s coca-growing regions has dropped precipitously or disappeared completely, spurring a humanitarian crisis in many remote, impoverished communities.
That means towns like Cano Cabra, deep in the country’s interior, about 265 kilometres south-east of Bogota, the capital, have seen their sole business largely vanish. Annual production of the coca leaf and cocaine hit new highs in 2022, with the manufacturing of the drug rising 24 per cent from the previous year, according to the most recent data available from the United Nations.
“With Petro’s disinterest in forced eradication, there are effectively no barriers to entry into the coca field,” said Kevin Whitaker, a former US ambassador to Colombia and a nonresident fellow at the Atlantic Council.Gloria Miranda, who now directs the government’s coca substitution program, disputed this claim, noting that drug seizures had increased significantly during Petro’s nearly two years in office. Critics say that is largely because so much more cocaine is being produced.
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