Presidential candidate Paloma Valencia proposed an international alliance between Colombia, the United States and Europe to confront drug trafficking, warning that the country is experiencing an unprecedented expansion of coca crops that, she said, is strengthening illegal armed groups.
The proposal was presented during an interview with CNN en Español, in which she argued that the drug trafficking problem can no longer be treated solely as an internal Colombian issue.
Valencia argued that the scale of the phenomenon requires a coordinated response from the major economies that are also consumer markets for cocaine. In her view, the expansion of coca cultivation and drug production in Colombia is “flooding the international cocaine market” and providing criminal organizations with a growing source of economic and military power.
She emphasized that drug trafficking not only affects internal security in Colombia, but also directly impacts the United States and Europe through drug trafficking and the strengthening of transnational criminal networks. For that reason, she said the response should be a joint strategy combining intelligence, judicial cooperation and international pressure against the structures that sustain the business.
Colombian candidate Paloma Valencia proposes alliance to combat drug trafficking
During the interview, Valencia defended the need to build a strategic alliance between Colombia, the United States and European countries to combat drug trafficking more effectively. According to her, the growth of the cocaine business has surpassed the capacity of Colombian authorities to act if they operate in isolation.
The candidate suggested that such cooperation should include intelligence sharing, coordinated operations and a stronger international policy against criminal networks. She noted that drug trafficking functions as a global economy that connects cultivation areas, trafficking routes and consumer markets, and therefore the response must have the same international scope.
Valencia said that a coalition of this kind would allow several links in the drug trafficking chain to be attacked simultaneously: from production in rural territories to money laundering and distribution networks on other continents. In her view, coordination among governments would also increase pressure on criminal groups operating across different jurisdictions.
The candidate also argued that drug trafficking has become one of the main sources of funding for illegal armed organizations in Colombia. According to her, these groups use resources from the cocaine trade to expand their territorial presence, acquire weapons and consolidate control structures over rural communities.
The figures behind the growth of coca
One of Valencia’s central arguments was the exponential increase in the areas planted with coca in Colombia in recent years. During the interview she said the country is facing historic levels of illicit crops, which in her view explains the growth of the cocaine market.
“The country may have more than 350,000 hectares of coca cultivation, and in addition to this, according to the United Nations, 3,700 metric tons of cocaine are produced,” the candidate from the traditional right explained to the outlet.
To put these figures into perspective, Valencia recalled that “when Colombia was considered a narco-state, during the 1980s with Pablo Escobar, the country produced 200 tons.” With this, she said, “these armed structures [that benefit from drug trafficking] have a larger budget than the Armed Forces of Colombia, which is why we will need strategic alliances” with both the United States and European countries.
She explained that this abundance of drugs financially strengthens illegal armed groups operating in the country that control part of the drug trafficking chain. “This government [that of Gustavo Petro] will hand over the country to us with 700 municipalities with the presence of armed structures and more than 30,000 men under arms, in addition to the structures in the cities that are organized armed gangs,” she lamented.
For the presidential candidate, the growth of drug trafficking largely explains the persistence of violence in several regions of the country. According to her, revenues derived from cocaine allow illegal groups to maintain armed structures, recruit fighters and compete for control of strategic territories.
In that context, Valencia insisted that the fight against drug trafficking must become a priority of foreign policy and international security, in some way recovering the military strategy that during the governments of President Álvaro Uribe was known as Democratic Security.
The controversial plan to replace illicit crops under President Petro
The anti-drug trafficking program of current Colombian president Gustavo Petro has become one of the most controversial pillars of security policy in Colombia. His strategy is based mainly on the voluntary substitution of illicit crops, a plan that seeks to persuade farmers to abandon coca cultivation in exchange for financial support, productive projects, and a state presence in historically marginalized regions.
The government maintains that this approach aims to address the social roots of drug trafficking, rather than focusing exclusively on forced eradication and military operations. According to the Petro administration, many farmers grow coca due to a lack of economic alternatives, infrastructure, and access to legal markets.
However, the policy has sparked strong criticism from opposition sectors, security analysts, and some regional governments. Its detractors argue that the reduction of eradication campaigns and the priority given to voluntary substitution have coincided with a significant increase in coca crops in several areas of the country.
For critics, this expansion has strengthened illegal armed groups that depend on drug trafficking, such as the Gulf Clan and the National Liberation Army (ELN), which maintain a presence in coca-growing regions and obtain resources from the production and trafficking of cocaine.
The government rejects these accusations and argues that the strategy is part of a broader approach linked to its Total Peace policy. Authorities maintain that forced eradication has shown its limits over decades and that only an economic transformation in rural areas will sustainably reduce dependence on illicit crops.
As the debate continues, the outcome of this policy has become one of the main tests for the government’s security strategy and for the future of the fight against drug trafficking in Colombia, as well as one of the focal points of controversy in the current electoral campaign for the presidential elections.