Biden administration suspends satellite monitoring of Colombian coca crops as cocaine surges

The Biden administration has quietly ditched a key gauge used for decades to measure success in the war on drugs, suspending satellite monitoring of coca crops in Colombia as cocaine production surges in South America.

The Biden administration has quietly ditched a key gauge used for decades to measure success in the war on drugs, suspending satellite monitoring of coca crops in Colombia as cocaine production surges in South America.

A State Department spokesperson said the move was "temporary" but gave no timeframe for data collection to resume or explain why it was suspended in the first place. It was also unclear whether satellite surveys would continue in Peru and Bolivia, which together account for about half of coca production in the Andean region.

The move, first reported by Colombia's El Tiempo newspaper, has drawn outrage from Republicans in Congress from Florida, who have been calling for the president to decertify Colombia's government for failing to cooperate in U.S. anti-narcotics efforts. But it tracks with leftist Colombian President Gustavo Petro's efforts to refocus law enforcement efforts away from the rural backwaters where coca is grown to instead chase large-scale smugglers and money launderers who reap the bulk of the drug trade's profits.

"We are constantly assessing the effectiveness of various counternarcotics efforts and make changes to our efforts as needed," the State Department spokesperson said in an emailed statement. The spokesperson gave the comment on condition of anonymity, citing agency policy. "We continue to work with the Government of Colombia on the monitoring of illicit coca crops."

Since at least 1987, the U.S. government has published annual estimates of coca cultivation in Colombia. The numbers soared to an all-time high in 2020, when the U.S. Office of National Drug Control Policy estimated that 245,00 hectares of land -- an area three times the size of New York City -- was planted with the illicit crop used to make cocaine. Last year's report showed production was almost unchanged in 2021 from the same high level.

In the first five months of 2023, Petro's government has manually eradicated just 4,511 hectares of coca -- down almost 90% from the 33,454 hectares yanked during the same period a year ago, when the law and order conservative Ivan Duque was still in power.

While the U.S. hasn't commented on what prompted the policy shift, Republicans have seized on it to attack Petro, a former leftist guerrilla, as he seeks better ties with Venezuela's socialist government and tries to cut a deal with the nation's last remaining rebel group.