At the UN, Colombia's president calls for an end to the war on drugs

In his speech before the United Nations General Assembly, the Colombian president highlighted the need to end the war on drugs and protect the environment.

Gustavo Petro did not hesitate to blame Northern countries for their role in environmental destruction and the perpetuation of the war on drugs, a symptom of their capitalist greed.

He accused the Northern Countries of only being interested in his country «to spray poisons on our jungles, to put our men in prison and our women in exclusion. You are not interested in the education of our children, but in killing the jungle and extracting coal and oil from its depths. The sponge that absorbs poison [the rainforest] is useless, they prefer to release more poisons into the atmosphere.»

During his speech, Petro emphasized that the Amazon rainforest is being destroyed by the use of herbicides such as glyphosate, which have been used to eradicate illicit crops.

«To destroy the coca plant, they massively dump poisons like glyphosate, which flow into rivers and trap farmers. One million Latin Americans are murdered for cultivating the coca leaf and two million African Americans are imprisoned,» he recalled.

The Amazon rainforest is burning while you wage war and play with it, stressed Mr. Petro, pointing out that developed countries are clinging to the use of oil and gas by inventing «one war after another.».

Acting’failure of prohibitionist policy, he called for an end to the war on drugs.

«The war on drugs has been going on for 40 years. If we don't change course and it continues for another 40 years, the United States will see 2,800,000 young people die from fentanyl overdoses, which is not produced in our Latin America. They will see millions of African Americans imprisoned in their private prisons.»

«The war on drugs has served as an excuse to avoid taking necessary measures, while more actions should be implemented to save humanity,» recalled the Colombian president, emphasizing that «without justice, there is no social peace.»

«From here, from my wounded Latin America, I demand an end to the irrational war on drugs. To reduce drug consumption, we don't need wars; for that, we need all of us to build a better society: a more supportive, more loving society, where life's intensity saves us from addiction and new forms of slavery. Do you want less drugs? Think about less profit and more love. Think about a rational exercise of power.»