Colombia’s police suspend forceful eradication of coca crops

By MANUEL RUEDA
Associated Press

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — Colombia’s new police director says the country has suspended forced eradication of coca fields and will focus on intercepting cocaine shipments while providing farmers with incentives to adopt legal crops. In an interview Tuesday with the Bogota newspaper El Tiempo, national police director Henry Sanabria said operations aimed at forcefully eradicating coca leaf plantations in remote areas were suspended recently. The move marks a significant shift in drug policy in the Andean nation, which has struggled to slow cocaine exports to the United States. Colombia’s newly inaugurated leftist president has said he wants to change how the nation fights drug trafficking.