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The President of the Republic, Gustavo Petro, made a particular explanation of why the national currency, the peso, has been devalued in recent years, compared to other foreign currencies such as the dollar or the euro.
In the middle of his speech at the national cocalera assembly that took place in El Tarra, Norte de Santander, He was direct in assuring that the peso was devalued not because of inflation or the world recession, but because of a blow from the illicit cocaine business.
Petro indicated that dollars from drug trafficking no longer enter Colombia, especially cocaine, and affirmed that the money remains in the United States or in other countries where the illegal business operates.
“The Colombian peso fell because dollars no longer enter the same amount as before, oil yes, coal yes, but cocaine did fall, the evidence is that cocaine dollars do not enter Colombia,” Petro explained.
He also said in his presentation: “We do not have to fail (in the fight against drugs), we have to build society, the joint proposals that have been presented seem pertinent to me; For example, one: if a coca farmer does not take his crop because he does not know what awaits him, for example, hunger ”.
“If that distrust does not allow you to take the step and observe a structural change in the world cocaine market, because the owners of drug trafficking have changed, they are not Colombian, they are already powerful organizations and a Pablo Escobar would pale with what is happening” Peter noted.
In that same scenario, The President of the Republic announced that his Government will allow the peasant to continue cultivating coca leaves as long as crop substitution works and thus can, according to the head of state, move definitively to a legal harvest option.
Within the framework of the first national coca assembly that took place in El Tarra, in the department of Norte de Santander, President Petro gave instructions to the Government to design a program that meets the purpose of delivering a solid business and sustainable for farmers.
“You have to design a program so that a peasant can continue with the coca leaf while the substitute crop works. They are going to tell us that they live with that satan, no, we live with reality, not only by not making the mistakes of the past, it can be done through a process of dialoguePetro kept.
He added in his statement: “Public officials must come to the territory, of course we have to remove the peasant, we have to move on to other times, the production of substitution raw materials must become an industry, it is not only planting cocoa leaves, but there must be a chocolate shop in the same region”.
National Coca Assembly
As planned, the cocaleros meeting began in the municipality of El Tarra, better known as the heart of Catatumbo, a subregion of the department of Norte de Santander. which takes place on December 15 and 16, which was attended by President Gustavo Petro.
This event is the opportunity to expose the reality of the people of Catatumba facing the problem of coca and the gradual and concerted substitution of illicit crops that is practiced in this territory affected by the war.
In this order of ideas, the affected populations carry out these dialogues between communities, productive sectors and the Government to seek better solutions and socialize the proposals for change that the Colombian president proposes for this region.
“This is an initiative that arose from the president’s own voice during the visit he made last September and in turn is supported by all the social organizations and the indigenous communities of the Barí people of Catatumbo”indicated Juan Carlos Quintero, director of the Peasant Association of Catatumbo (Ascamcat).
“The objective of this meeting is to listen to the multiplicity of sectors of Catatumbo with a presence in the region and we have to do with communities that have their economic base around coca crops. The main idea is to formulate a comprehensive alternative proposal for substitution that for the first time includes regional consensus and allows for the generation of a public policy”, said the director of Ascamcat.