Colombian president aims to reduce drug violence and weaken rebels by paying farmers to switch crops

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BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — Colombian President Gustavo Petro announced a plan Monday to reduce coca planting in a northeastern region rattled by rebel attacks by paying farmers while they switch to legal crops.

Petro said at a cabinet meeting that his government will seek to eradicate 25,000 hectares of coca in the Catatumbo region within 140 days, as part of an effort to decrease violence and weaken rebel groups that profit from the cocaine trade. The region has approximately 55,000 hectares of coca crops and is one of Colombia's main producers of cocaine.

Petro said farmers in Catatumbo will eradicate their coca plantings voluntarily and will be paid by the government while they transition to legal crops. He added that the Colombian military will continue to operate against rebels in the region while the government will try to improve roads that enable farmers to get legal crops to markets.

“Peace in Colombia depends on the voluntary decision of farmers who grow coca to eradicate their crops,” Petro said in the meeting.

In January, more than 36,000 people were displaced from their homes in Catatumbo, a mountainous region of around 400,000 people that straddles the border with Venezuela.

Rebels from the National Liberation Army, or ELN, launched coordinated attacks against civilians they accused of being collaborators of a rival group known as the FARC-EMC.

An estimated 80 people were killed in the attacks, which prompted Colombia’s government to suspend peace talks with the ELN and declare a 90-day emergency that allows it to limit some civil liberties in the area without congressional approval.

Petro has accused the rebels of trying to take over the region to control its coca crops and its drug-trafficking routes.

Cocaine production in Colombia has been rising since 2013, according to the U.N. Office on Drug and Crime. It reported in October that cultivation of coca bushes increased by 10% in Colombia in 2023, while potential cocaine production increased 53% from the previous year.

A 2016 peace agreement between the Colombian government and the nation’s largest rebel group, the FARC, aimed to curb coca cultivation in rural areas.

But in some rural areas, smaller armed groups have filled the power vacuum left by the FARC, actively promoting the lucrative cocaine trade.