Press Release

2006 COUNTERNARCOTICS ASSESSMENT FOR PERU

(Washington, D.C.)—The Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) released the following statement regarding the counternarcotics assessment for Peru.

The 2006 U.S. Government estimate of Peruvian coca cultivation and cocaine production potential has been completed. The overall assessment shows a 17 percent increase when compared to similar survey areas assessed during 2005, and a 25-percent increase when including survey areas assessed for the first time in 2006. Comparison of figures for 2006 with figures from years prior is not possible because of insufficient sampling in one major survey area. We are 90 percent confident that the coca cultivation estimate ranges from 31,000 and 42,800 hectares, again excluding the one area that was insufficiently sampled. Cocaine potential production was 245 metric tons based on the most recent data collected on Peruvian cocaine production techniques, and represents a 2 percent increase from 2005.

Peru is the world's second largest cocaine producer. Over the last year, Peru's national, regional, and municipal elections created uncertainty and provided a volatile political backdrop to counternarcotics strategies. The election of several new cocalero members of Congress raised the profile of the debate surrounding coca cultivation and amplified the voice of an organized, well-funded and often violent opposition from politically active cocalero groups working to stop eradication and undermine alternative development.

In 2006, the Government of Peru exceeded its 10,000 hectare eradication goal-eradicating 12,688 hectares of coca-and interdicted over 19 metric tons of cocaine. Peru also made significant progress in strengthening police capacity by training 750 new police dedicated to counternarcotics enforcement. This expansion will allow the Peruvian National Police to sustain interdiction and eradicate coca cultivation in the valleys where growers have violently resisted programmed eradication. The Alternative Development program offered assistance to farmers who accepted programmed eradication. This direct link between alternative development and programmed eradication has proven to be a major success and model for subsequent alternative development project implementation.