Colombia may be facing its worst coca cultivation crisis in years, according to Daniel Mauricio Rico, an economist and criminologist who has advised multiple governments on drug policy. In a new interview, Rico warns that the country is essentially flying blind: since December 2024, Colombia has had no reliable official data on coca crops.
The gap traces back to outgoing President Gustavo Petro’s administration, which Rico says defunded and disconnected the monitoring system long run in partnership with the United Nations, known as SIMCI. The last confirmed UN figure, from December 2024, put cultivation at roughly 265,000 hectares (about 655,000 acres). A separate report suggested the number had climbed to 300,000 hectares (741,000 acres) by December 2025.
Without hard data for 2026, Rico has relied on his own fieldwork and consultations with colleagues. His estimate is sobering: somewhere between 350,000 and 400,000 hectares (865,000 to 988,000 acres) of coca leaf currently under cultivation—levels he calls unprecedented. Making matters worse, he notes that crop productivity has also spiked sharply, meaning even more cocaine could be produced from existing fields.
The findings raise tough questions for incoming president Abelardo de la Espriella, who inherits a drug problem far larger, and far less understood, than official figures suggest.
Read the full interview at El Tiempo for Rico’s complete analysis.
Source: ‘Son inauditos los niveles de coca que heredó De La Espriella’ / Entrevista de María Isabel Rueda (eltiempo.com).
Image: Christine Matthews.