According to a new report based on official government findings, "Estudio comparativo de la evolución de la coca y la cocaína en Perú y Colombia" by the specialists Jaime Antezana Rivera and Jaime García Díaz, in 2008 Colombia produced 430 (metric?) tons of cocaine compared to 302 in Peru. But Colombian authorities supposedly intercepted 198 tons compared to only 20 in Peru. This leaves Colombian trafickers free to export 232 tons and their Peruvian counterparts 282—leading the authors to conclude that Peru is now the world's top exporter of cocaine.

Additionally, in 2008 Colombian authorities supposedly eradicated 95,731 hectares of coca leaf, while Peruvian security forces reported only 10,143 eradicated. While Colombian authorities are conducting eradication campaigns in 24 departments of the country, Peru's Special Control and Reduction Project (CORAH) is active only in the regions of San Martín and Huánuco. The key coca production zones of Valle del Monzón (part of the Huallaga Valley) and the Apurimac-Ene River Valley (VRAE) are supposedly not subject to any eradication campaign.

The study also finds that lat year Colombian police destroyed 3,209 cocaine laboratories, while the Peruvain National Police Anti-Drug Directorate (DIRANDRO) reported only 1,125 labs destroyed. (Peru 21, Aug. 23)

See our last posts on Peru and Colombia.

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