Eradication work in the second and third modality is carried out by more than 70 men in the Maku village, in San José del Guaviare municipality.
Statistics in the departamento ofGuaviare indicate that cocaine production in 2002 was more than 27,000 hectares, today it is estimated that this figure decreased significantly to a little more than 3,200 hectares, thanks to the operations against drug trafficking and the implementation of Operation Artemisa and Inocencio Chincá. It is important to mention that the residual organized armed groups are the main threat to the environment, and they would be the ones that, once the illicit cultivation has been eradicated, return to the site to replant coca.
It is estimated that three kilograms of coca base can be produced from a single hectare of coca leaf, a figure that would cost much more put abroad once processed.
The residual organized armed groups could sell a kilogram of coca paste base in three million pesos, so every time a laboratory is destroyed, the losses are measured in millions and hit their illicit activities, mainly used for the purchase of weapons and logistics.
During a visit made by the commander of the Fourth Army Division, Major General Antonio María Beltrán Díaz, to a group of soldiers of the Infantry Battalion No.19 General Joaquín París, deforestation is observed over the jungle, mostly in depopulated points to plant coca.
Once the Army Aviation aircraft lands in the Maku village, San José del Guaviare municipality, troops proceed to give some instructions to analyze the terrain, even with the helicopter.
These soldiers in the inclement climate of the jungle, characterized by humidity and high temperatures, are worthy of admiration, they lose he sense of time and no longer know how many bushes they have eradicated.
On the village Guanapalo, in Guaviare, the soldier José Correa González, a specialist in eradication using a shovel, describes how the day-to-day in this noble and courageous mission, stating that his work started very early, and in areas where the enemy can attack at any time, that is to say, he conducts a dual mission, to eradicate the drug trafficking and dealing directly residual Organized Armed Groups, GAO-r, the front under the command alias Ivan Mordisco.
After an extensive activity, with blistered hands, these soldiers receive a motivation from the command, made of a cold drink and food, which in those conditions has an invaluable price, since they normally consume another kind of food.
It is important to indicate that one hectare is equivalent to one and a half football soccer field. This year, soldiers have already eradicated 3,775 hectares, fulfilling 54 percent of the goal proposed by the National Government in the Fourth Army Division work region.
This year the figures against the drug trade in the departments of Meta, Guaviare and Vaupés, have led to find 15 tonnes of solid supplies (15,231 kilograms), 37,506 gallons of liquid precursors, 157 laboratories of coca base paste, coca, three cocaine laboratories, more than a ton of marijuana (1,227 kg), 940,200 seedlings of coca, among other derivatives of the drug, what represents big losses to the organized armed groups and and common crime.
Source: Press - National Army
