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☆ Cocaine still Colombia drug gangs' top export despite fentanyl's ascendancy
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-15 | by ( Luis Jaime Acosta | Thomson Reuters | Luis Jaime Has Worked At Reuters For More Than Years. While He Chiefly Covers Colombia'S Armed Conflict | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Rocketing consumption of synthetic drug fentanyl in the U.S. has led some - including Colombia's President Gustavo Petro - to forecast declines in cocaine production in the Andean country, the world's leading producer. Coca production is taking place in new areas and fresh trafficking routes are opening up, Zapata said. Ecuador's incoming president, Daniel Noboa, who takes office this month, has promised to confront rising crime in the country, where violence linked to drug trafficking has increased sharply. Colombia hopes to destroy 200 square kilometers of coca crops by the end of the year and seize a record 834 tons of cocaine. "Drug trafficking is changing.

Persons: Luisa Gonzalez, Gustavo Petro, We're, Nicolas Zapata, Petro, Zapata, Daniel Noboa, we've, Luis Jaime Acosta, Oliver Griffin, Marguerita Choy Organizations: REUTERS, Rights, Colombian, United Nations Office, Drugs, Thomson Locations: Putumayo, Colombia, Rights BOGOTA, U.S, Europe, Ecuador

Mendoza, a former fighter for the now-disbanded Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerrillas, dragged her children back inside the house. In interviews with Reuters, those people recounted how the attacks left conservation projects adrift, with conservationists withdrawing from environmental protection works because of fear of more violence. Municipal data from local environmental authorities and the Colombian Institute of Meteorology (IDEAM) also showed that in the year after each killing, deforestation at a local level was worse than national trends. Santofimio's killing brought his hard-fought conservation project to a halt. In the tree nursery, which stopped work after Santofimio's killing, saplings bask in the dappled sunlight beneath protective nets.

Persons: Duberney Lopez, Jorge Santofimio, PUERTO, Leidy Mendoza, Mendoza, Jorge !, they'd, Susana Muhamad, Muhamad, Colombia's, –, Armando Aroca, Santofimio, Lopez, Kevin Murakami, Comuccom, Aroca, Javier Franciso Parra, Francisco couldn't, Andres Felipe Garcia, Cormacarena, Parra, Garcia, Luisz Martinez, Martinez, La, KfW, Roberto Gomez, Gonzalo Cardona, Sara Ines Lara, Oliver Griffin, Julia Symmes Cobb, Katy Daigle, Claudia Parsons Organizations: Revolutionary Armed Forces, Colombian, Villagers, Reuters, Environment Ministry, Global, Colombian Institute of Meteorology, Comuccom, International Narcotics, Law, Affairs, U.S, National Liberation Army, UN, Programme, Meta, UNDP, Progress, World Wildlife Fund, Security, USAID, Thomson Locations: Colombia, PUERTO GUZMAN, Putumayo, Bogota, La, Meta, La Macarena, Amazonia, Puerto Guzman

☆ Colombia Potential Cocaine Output Rose 24% in 2022 - UN
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-11 | by ( Sept. | At P.M. | ) www.usnews.com time to read: +2 min

Also at a more than 20-year high was potential cocaine output, which rose 24% to 1,738 metric tonnes. Coca is the chief ingredient in cocaine, whose production has fueled the Andean country's six-decade armed conflict, which has killed at least 450,000 people. Petro's government wants to help rural communities voluntarily substitute some 100,000 hectares of coca crops over the next four years, an official told Reuters recently. The government wants to reduce cultivation areas to 150,000 hectares and production capacity to 900 metric tonnes by 2026, Osuna said. Some 13% of Colombia's annual deforestation is linked to illicit crops, Environment Minister Susana Muhamad told a drugs conference last week.

Persons: Candice Welsch, Welsch, Gustavo Petro, Colombia's, Nestor Osuna, Osuna, Susana Muhamad, oversupply, Luis Jaime Acosta, Oliver Griffin, Julia Symmes Cobb, Richard Chang Organizations: United Nations Office, Drugs, Reuters, UN, Food Locations: BOGOTA, Colombia, Putumayo province, Ecuador

BOGOTA, July 14 (Reuters) - A crash in the price of coca, the chief ingredient in cocaine, is contributing to food insecurity in Colombia and causing displacement, as people leave areas that depend on the illicit crop, according to an internal United Nations presentation seen by Reuters. Historically coca crops have provided better incomes than legal alternatives for thousands of rural Colombian families, with drug-trafficking groups often footing the costs of transport, fertilizers and other supplies. "There is no cash to buy food and the inflation of (food prices) is rising," the presentation, dated June, said. Oversupply of coca - including more productive plants and record crops - is contributing to the crash, along with slow growth of trafficking routes and new coca cultivation in Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico, the presentation said. Other reasons for falling coca prices include territorial disputes between trafficking groups and imports of synthetic opioid fentanyl to the United States, a major cocaine consumer, it added.

Persons: Valerin Saurith, It's, Saurith, Elizabeth Dickinson, Dickinson, Oliver Griffin, Aurora Ellis Organizations: Reuters, United Nations, Food Programme, WFP, Norte de Santander, International Crisis, Thomson Locations: BOGOTA, Colombia, Nations, Colombian, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, United States, Narino, Putumayo, Norte

☆ Colombia suspends ceasefire with Estado Mayor Central rebels in some areas
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-22 | by ( Luis Jaime Acosta | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

BOGOTA, May 22 (Reuters) - Colombia's government on Monday suspended a national ceasefire with the Estado Mayor Central (EMC) armed group in some provinces, following the murder of four Indigenous teenagers. The EMC was founded by dissident former members of the now-demobilized FARC rebels, who reject a 2016 peace deal signed by that group. "The current bilateral ceasefire with this armed group in the provinces of Meta, Caqueta, Guaviare and Putumayo is suspended and all offensive operations are reactivated," the government said in a statement. The EMC has an estimated 3,500 members, including nearly 2,200 combatants, and operates in 23 of Colombia's 32 provinces, according to security force documents. Reporting by Luis Jaime Acosta; Writing by Julia Symmes Cobb; editing by John StonestreetOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

BOGOTA, May 16 (Reuters) - Deforestation in Colombia during 2022 is forecast to have fallen by up to 10% versus the previous year, Environment Minister Susana Muhamad said on Tuesday, citing significant decreases in the country's Amazon. Deforestation in Colombia in 2021 rose 1.5% versus the previous year to 1,741 square kilometers (430,218 acres), representing an area twice the size of New York City. A 10% decrease in deforestation would take the total area of forest destroyed during 2022 in Colombia to below the 1,589 square kilometers registered in 2019, the first full year of the administration of former President Ivan Duque. Between 2001 and 2021, more than 31,000 square kilometers of forest were destroyed in Colombia, of which some 18,600 square kilometers were deforested in the country's Amazon. Colombia's government will publish full deforestation figures for 2022 in June, Muhamad said.

For another, her anxiety and physical discomfort were approaching what felt like an unbearable peak. A week or so later, she delivered a tiny, squirming boy with jet black hair and soft, curious eyes. Marleny thought he was perfect, but her mother, a retired midwife, insisted that the placenta contained a hint of trouble. Go to the registrar’s office, the nurses told Marleny and Andrés. But the registrar’s office only sent Andrés back to the hospital, where a different nurse told them to try the notary’s office instead.

☆ Colombia's oil theft soars, leaving trail of environmental harm
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-23 | by ( Oliver Griffin | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +9 min

Reuters accompanied a police unit tasked with tackling oil theft in September to two sites near Tumaco, a Pacific port in southwest Colombia that is the terminal for the country's Transandino oil pipeline. The animals, the trees - everything is totally burned," said Colonel Johan Pena, commander of the police unit charged with tackling oil theft in Narino, a province bordering Ecuador that is known for cocaine production. Reuters approached more than a dozen environmental groups, rights advocates, government agencies and international organizations who either said they had no detailed information on the extent of the environmental damage in Colombia from oil theft or did not respond to questions. Oil spills on land smother soil pore spaces, restricting microorganisms' access to oxygen, said Martha Daza, a professor at Cali-based university Universidad del Valle's school of engineering of natural resources and the environment. Regional health authorities in Narino did not immediately respond to questions about the health impact of oil spills.

☆ Colombia killings of social leaders, rights defenders hit new high
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-07 | by ( Luis Jaime Acosta | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

REUTERS/Nathalia Angarita/File PhotoBOGOTA, Dec 7 (Reuters) - Colombia will end the year with at least 199 killings of social leaders and human rights defenders, the highest level recorded, due to attacks by illegal armed groups in areas tied to the drug trade, the country's human rights ombudsman said on Wednesday. "There's a correlation between the increase in the killings of social leaders and human rights defenders with the increase in illicit crops in different territories and operations by illegal armed groups that dispute territorial control of drug trafficking routes," Camargo added. Some 66 leaders and rights defenders have been killed during Petro's administration so far. According to the Ombudsman's office, the provinces of Narino, Cauca, Putumayo, Antioquia and Arauca have been the most affected by violence against social leaders and human rights defenders this year. The numbers on community and human rights leader killings in Colombia vary widely depending on the source.

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