Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro told the United Nations’ Commission on Narcotic Drugs (UNCND) on Thursday he sought to radically change regional drug policies with out without UN support.
In a video message, Petro reiterated that his government considered the so-called War on Drugs a failure that justified human rights violations against Latin American rural communities that were associated with the cultivation of coca, the base ingredient of cocaine.
“We turned our peasant, indigenous and Afro communities into enemies. We massively and systematically violated rights,” the president told the UNCND in a video message.
What the world calls the global drug problem reflects, more than anything else, the loneliness of millions of people in developed societies, today addicted to drug use, and the lack of opportunities for communities in the framework of legal economies.
President Gustavo Petro
Petro said he had been seeking support in Latin America and the Caribbean to revise regional policies when it comes to public healthcare, and crimes associated with drug trafficking like political corruption and money laundering.
The health of our societies is at stake. The risk posed by the use and abuse of illicit drugs, both natural and synthetic, can only be mitigated through a harm reduction policy that privileges a public health approach.
President Gustavo Petro
“We believe that all this should be done with the United Nations, but not a United Nations that is blind, deaf and quiet,” said the president.
Ever since taking office in August 2022, the Petro administration has been reaching out to other governments in Latin America to come to a new regional approach to drug trafficking and drug abuse.
In Colombia, the government suspended repressive police operations that target coca farmers and has tried to revive a crop substitution and rural development program that is part of an ongoing peace process.
