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The Peruvian government has announced that it has achieved its goal of eradicating coca leaf plantations. Here, soldiers participate in an operation to destroy plantations in the Vraem. (photo of illustration) CARLOS MANDUJANO / AFP

In Peru, the government announced on Tuesday that it has already reached its goal of eradicating coca leaf plantations of the year 2019 in the main drug production areas of the country.

More than 25,000 hectares of coca plantations have been destroyed since the beginning of the year (25,526) in the two main production areas of Peru, the Haut-Huallaga valley and the Vraem, the valley of the Apurimac Rivers, Ené and Mantaro.

49,000 hectares of illegal coca

These are dangerous areas where there are still very many traffickers protected by several hundred combatants who still claim to be Maoist guerrillas on the Luminous Path even if in reality their main activity is nothing more than drug trafficking. Manual eradication and then the destruction of coca shrubs is therefore very risky.

Peruvian Minister of the Interior Carlos Moran confirmed that the annual goal of eradicating 25,000 hectares of coca had been reached several weeks in advance. Peru is with Colombia one of the two main coca producing countries.

The United Nations last year spoke of 49,000 hectares of illegal coca. But in Peru as in Bolivia, the coca leaf in itself is not illegal. It is used ancestrally by Quichua communities to fight against fatigue and against the lack of oxygen at altitude.

We make coca tea, cakes, shampoos, toothpaste and all kinds of products using the recognized properties of the coca leaf. Legal plantations represent around 10% of what is planted in the country, or 11,000 tonnes of leaves. Everything else goes into drug trafficking, hence the importance of eradication operations.

New plantation areas

Traffickers are constantly adapting to anti-drug operations and the market. The geography of coca has evolved this year. Drug use has increased in countries like Brazil, Argentina and Chile. These three countries are also drug export areas to emerging markets like Asia.

Consequently, traffickers have started to get closer to these countries and to clear new plantation areas in the Amazon region, for example on the triple border between Peru, Colombia and Brazil, in Madre de Dios but also in the region Puno tropical, close to Bolivia and Brazil.

These new plantations are multiplying in protected areas, natural reserves, which is very worrying. These plantations obviously cause deforestation and a threat to the indigenous populations of the Amazon, especially the very fragile tribes who are still in voluntary isolation.