The Colombian president, Gustavo Petro, denounced in his first intervention before the United Nations the failure of the anti-drug war and the destruction of thousands of lives and the Amazon jungle by the strategy of persecution.
“Deadly consumption has increased, from soft drugs to harder ones, there has been a genocide on my continent and in my country, millions of people have been sentenced to prison”, said the first leftist president of Colombia. In a speech addressed to consumer countries, Petro called for an end to the irrational war on drugs.
The president emphasized that the strategy that has been used for four decades to end the lucrative business only leaves hundreds of thousands dead in North America and overcrowded prisons in the rest of the continent. “If we don’t correct the course and this war goes on for another 40 years, the United States will see 2,800,000 young people die of overdoses and a million more Latin Americans will die murdered”held.
Since his inauguration on August 7, Petro has insisted on a focus on preventing consumption in developed economies instead of persecuting growers of coca leaves, the base of cocaine, considered the weakest link in the drug trafficking chain.
According to the UN, in Colombia there are at least 142,000 hectares of drug crops, a large part of them planted in the Amazon jungle. The fires to open fields for coca and other purposes destroy one of the richest ecosystems in the world and key to the absorption of CO2. Petro pointed out that the Amazon is being a victim of the addiction of the powers for coca, money, and for natural resources such as coal and oil.
“The jungle is burning, gentlemen (…) destroying the jungle, the Amazon, has become the slogan followed by states and businessmen”said the president, who came to power waving environmentalist flags. “They decided to make an enemy of an Amazon jungle plant, extradite and imprison its growers, I invite you to stop the war and stop the climate disaster”he added.
