Colombian President Gustavo Petro will start buying “coca crops”

Bogotá, Colombian President Gustavo Petro said Friday that the government will “start the state purchase of coca crops” from farmers in the southwest of the country, specifically from the town of El Plateado, located in the department of Cauca, which in recent weeks has been the scene of clashes between the Army and illegal armed groups.

“In El Plateado we are going to start the state purchase of coca crops. Lightning and thunder are going to fall on us. Thank goodness the attorney general and the prosecutor have already left,” said Petro in the middle of a public event this Friday.

“If we don’t change the methods, we won’t change. If we are going to repeat the same thing, with the same instruments, we all know that we won’t solve anything. So, we are going to buy the coca crops from the peasantry of Micay, while the legal economy appears. For that, credit is needed in Micay and in all the poor and excluded areas of Colombia,” said Colombian President Gustavo Petro.

The head of state pointed out that in order for the peasants of this region and others where people live off the cultivation of coca leaves to make this transition from illicit to legal economies, access to credit is required. “In these areas, credit does not reach the peasants because the poor do not have credit,” he added.

These words from President Petro come one week after the Perseo operation in El Plateado, a military strategy that aims to regain control of this area of ​​the country, a strategic enclave for years of the FARC dissidents.

Written by: Oscar El Blue

Colombian President Gustavo Petro will start buying “coca crops”