Coca eradication best way to fight violence in Colombia, Duque says

The eradication of Colombia’s plantations of coca, the raw material for cocaine, is the best way to protect peace efforts and fight the drug trafficking that fuels violence in the South American nation, President Ivan Duque said on Wednesday.

Colombia, long a leading source of the world’s cocaine, announced last week it eradicated a record amount of coca last year after coming under pressure from the United States following a jump in crop figures.

“The great security challenge is derived from drug trafficking,” Duque told Reuters ahead of a meeting of the United Nations Peacebuilding Commission. “Drug trafficking is the fuel of criminality and the fuel of terrorism.”

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