Colombian President Says
Illegal Drugs Contribute
To Global Warming
Colombian President
Alvaro Uribe on Friday
proposed that the
anti-narcotics drive be
added to the campaign
against global warming,
since drug traffickers
destroyed jungles to
make room for illegal
plantations.
"Drugs are the great
enemy of the jungle,"
Uribe said during a
regional summit on
Drugs, Security and
Cooperation in
Cartagena, some 700 km
north of the Colombian
capital Bogota.
"I'd like to suggest the
fight against illegal
drugs be included in the
battle against global
warming," he said.
Delegations from the
Caribbean, Central
America, Mexico,
Venezuela and host
nation Colombia are
participating in the
summit.
Drug trafficking
represents "the main
enemy of our jungle",
and the fight against it
should be our first
contribution to the
strategy against global
warming, said Uribe.
Jungles cover around 51
percent of Colombia's
total territory of1.16
million square km, he
said, pointing out that
drug traffickers have
destroyed more than two
million hectares of
jungle to create illegal
coca plantations.
According to the United
Nations Office on Drugs
and Crime (UNODC),
Colombia is the greatest
world producer of
cocaine with an annual
output of 610 tons.
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