Gustavo Petro, the country’s first left-wing president, wants an end to the “anti-drug war”

The country’s first left-wing president, a former guerrilla, is proposing “a new international convention” on the one hand, which would notably concern the United States, and peace agreements with armed groups on the other.

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It’s time to stop the “war on drugs” who “failed”, said the new Colombian president, Gustavo Petro, during his inaugural speech on Sunday 7 August. The first cocaine-producing country in the world wants to switch to a “strong consumption prevention policy” in developed countries, thanks to “a new international convention”.

This war involved a crop eradication policy with the help of the United States, the main consumer of this coca leaf derivative. Gold, “the war on drugs has strengthened the mafias and weakened the States”, says Gustavo Petro. He invites the armed groups to sign the peace, recalling the “legal benefits” possible.

In addition to the National Liberation Army, the last guerrilla in the country, powerful gangs of drug traffickers such as the Clan del Golfo, led by Baron “Otoniel” extradited this year to the United States, impose their law in several regions of the country. . And the dissidents of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), still defy the state thanks to the resources coming mainly from drug trafficking, despite the 2016 peace agreement which reduced violence.

According to the ex-guerrilla, in forty years of fighting drugs, “one million Latin Americans” were murdered. Each year, 70,000 North Americans succumb to drug overdoses.


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