秘鲁解除古柯种植禁令

The Peruvian government says it has suspended coca eradication¹ efforts in an area where much coca is grown.

秘鲁政府称，已经解除国内某地禁止种植古柯的禁令。

The Huallaga valley is Peru's second largest coca producing region
Head of the Peruvian president's anti-narcotics² efforts Ricardo Soberon said the new government would halt eradication in Huallaga while it re-evaluated the programme.

He said previous eradication efforts had had little effect.

Analysts³ said the move raised concerns about Peru's commitment to the fight against illegal coca production.

Peru's President Ollanta Humala, who came to office on 28 July, spoke⁴ in his election manifesto⁵（宣言，声明） of decriminalising coca farmers and even the low-level cocaine⁶ processors and smugglers.

But Mr Soberon told AFP the suspension was only temporary and not unusual.

"In every country - in Afghanistan, in Colombia, in Bolivia, in Mexico - it is normal to have these pauses to do the necessary evaluation⁷ of what has happened, to correct mistakes," he said.

But the Colombian anti-narcotics police said they had not halted their eradication programme since its inception⁸ in 1994.

"The fight against the (illicit⁹) crops is permanent and continuous, with the participation¹⁰ of the military, the police, the Ministry¹¹ of the Interior, the National Narcotics Office and the Presidency," an anti-narcotics official said.

Sources close to Mexico's anti-drugs fight also denied having stopped their efforts to destroy illicit crops, saying there had been a temporary slow-down due to the lack of equipment in the early 2000s but never a complete halt.