Plan Colombia flop: $10 billion later and coca up 38 percent

The United States’ soon-to-be-released official 2016 report on coca cultivation in Colombia reveals that cultivation of the illicit crop in Colombia has gone up 38 per cent since the start of the $10 billion counter-narcotics strategy “Plan Colombia” in 2000.

The report’s numbers, confirmed by Colombian Defense Minister Luis Carlos Villegas on Tuesday, also project an annual production of 700 tons of pure production of cocaine, a 32 percent increase since the beginning of the stepped-up US assistance.

The new figures, which continue the upward trend the country has witnessed since 2013, provide the most damning evidence to date of the failures of US-backed hard-line counter-narcotics policies in Colombia.

Source: Colombia Reports