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High in the mountains of Catatumbo in northeast Colombia

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the coca leaf is a lifeline for many families in the region.
Juan says it's the only crop that provides a steady income

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We've been told so many times that we
could get benefits if we changed crops

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but nothing has arrived for most of us here. That's why
we continue to do this. There are lots of empty promises

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Dozens of people are working here, among
them, a 14-year-old teenager called Gabriel

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The coca leaf is the main ingredient for cocaine, and
there's at least 50,000 hectares of it in Catatumbo

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UN data says that these plants are growing
in record numbers across the country

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Not far away, the leaves are chopped into pieces,
and then they add sulfate, cement and diesel

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The paste produces later on taken to a more sophisticated lab. Pedro,
not his real name, says he gets around $650 for a kilo of cocaine paste

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But he's only left with $140. Do you
think we are the drug traffickers

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Don't you think we should get help to do
something else instead of being killed

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If they don't want us to grow the coca, then
seriously help us to grow something else

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This is the first step in the process of cocaine production.
and it's mostly carried out by peasants in the countryside

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When President Gustavo Petro came to office, he decided
to take a less militarized approach in coca eradication

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and decided to promote social
development in areas such as this one

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But his agenda is facing steep obstacles,
including pressure from the United States

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Colombia has been a crucial U.S. ally in the
region in the fight against drug trafficking

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but President Petro has increasingly questioned the U.S.
military presence in the Caribbean and close to Venezuela

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The United States has accused him of not doing enough to
fight against drugs and has threatened to withdraw assistance

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Coronel Jesús Alfonso Rojas says Colombia continues to fight
drug traffickers in record numbers and that they need U.S. help

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We need the technology and capacities which we don't have. Supporting our helicopters special equipment and everything else we use to fight traffickers it is a
concern Drug trafficking has been fueling Colombia conflict for decades The United States has spent billions in a fight that most ysts agree has so far failed

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Petro is trying a different approach, but for now, much of
his programs have failed to reach those who want to start anew

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Teresa Bo, Al Jazeera, Catatumbo, Colombia. Tensions have been growing between
the U.S. and Colombia, one of Washington's closest Latin American allies

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The U.S. says Colombia has failed to stop drug trafficking. The Pentagon has been carrying
out attacks on boats in the Caribbean, claiming they were carrying drugs to the U.S

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Last month, Colombian President Gustavo Petro accused the U.S. of murder after
one of the strikes reportedly killed a fisherman in its territorial waters

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In response, President Donald Trump called Petro an illegal
drug dealer. Trump has threatened to suspend aid to Colombia

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The U.S. provided more than 700
million dollars to the country in 2023

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Michael Shifter is adjunct professor of Latin
American studies at Georgetown University

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He joins us now live from Washington, D.C. Michael,
thanks so much for being with us here on Al Jazeera

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Let me ask you first, Colombian President Petro
vowed to move Colombia away from decades of U.S

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back to eradication efforts that failed. Petro wants a
new approach, but pressure from Washington is mounting

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From your perspective, could Trump's policies and this
military buildup have any kind of positive effect

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Well, the only positive effect that the buildup has is to focus
attention on the drug issue, which I think has been neglected

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But clearly what the Trump administration is doing in blowing up small boats that allegedly are carrying drugs
in against international law and with no possibility of being effective, obviously, is not is not the answer

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Only makes matters worse and deepens tensions with the Colombian government, as
well as other governments in Latin America who are very critical of what's going on

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So if there were a more constructive approach
and a serious willingness to commit resources

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to tackle this problem, then one could see some potential
benefits. But what we're seeing now is extremely frustrating

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And I think there little reason to be optimistic that this is going to make any dent in this spreading
problem throughout the region and throughout the world Yeah Michael you talking about deepening tensions

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I mean, President Petro accused the U.S. of murder
after one of those strikes reportedly killed a fisherman

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Trump called Petro an illegal drug leader, a dealer rather. This kind of rhetoric
being thrown around, what does that mean for the future of U.S.-Colombian relationships

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Well, there's been a very high level of tension and
hostility between Trump and Petro, which is not surprising

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Both of them are very conflictive and very
confrontational in their leadership styles

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There's absolutely no basis for what President Trump said
about President Petro, about being involved in the drug trade

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It's clear that he's presided over record coca
cultivation, as was shown in your setup speech

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That's true and that his policies have been ineffective. But
that's not the same as being involved in the drug trade himself

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And there's no evidence of that. And it's extremely
reckless, irresponsible for President Trump to say that

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And I think President Petro perhaps was unwise to use very aggressive
rhetoric with President Trump, given the asymmetry in power

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But, of course, many experts have said that what we're seeing is extrajudicial killings in
the Caribbean and now in the Pacific with these bombings of drug, supposedly drug boats

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There's no due process. There's no evidence. There's
no transparency. We have very little information

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So I think there are grounds to be very critical. But one has to sort of, I think,
temper one's words because the United States is an important ally of Colombia

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And Colombia needs the United States in a variety of issues,
including trying to reduce drug trafficking in the country

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Michael, we know that drug trafficking has
been fueling Colombia's conflict for decades

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President Petro has been trying a different approach. Why are
those programs failing to reach those who want a fresh start

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Well, I think, first of all, for those programs
to be successful, you need huge resources

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And I don't think Columbia has the resources. They've been willing to use the resources if you're going
to create alternative sources of development, alternative development, which has been around forever

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This is not exactly an original idea This has been you know in the last couple of decades I heard this
many many times But in order to make it work you really need a lot of resources to give incentives

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and credit for alternative crops. It's very hard
to compete with cocoa because it's obviously very

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lucrative. And so in order to make that change,
you really have to commit resources. And the

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Petro government has not been very effective in
any of its public policies. You need a state that's

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capable and you need a state that's prepared to
commit resources. And I think neither of those

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really are met in the case of Colombia under
President Petro. And Michael, we mentioned this

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before, but the U.S. has been fighting this
so-called war on drugs to eradicate these drugs

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for decades. Why have these efforts failed? First
of all, I think everybody knows they've failed

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I mean, if anybody who has any is serious and is
honest, it's hard to deny that they've utterly failed

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I think it's been misguided. I think that the problem, first of
all, has not been to sufficiently tackle demand for these drugs

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The programs have been very inadequate in the
United States and Latin America and Europe as well

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So that, I think, has been one problem. I think the other problem is I think they've they've been focused more on trying to take down cartel leaders or
trying to make some really visible sort of action against drug trafficking without really doing the very, very hard police intelligence work that is required

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These are these are huge, huge transnational businesses. And I think that requires a
very different approach than we saw with, you know, Pablo Escobar in the early 1990s

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This is the drug trade has evolved significantly. And I don't think the approaches from
Washington and elsewhere have cupped up with these these these fundamental changes

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They're moving very rapidly and the drug
traffickers and those are involved in the drug trade

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This is a huge business and you have to focus on that business and trying to address that business
rather than showing off killing some drug leader or extraditing some cartel leader to the United States

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That's not going to do it. That's not
going to really, really solve the problem

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All right. Michael Shifter, who's adjunct professor
of Latin American studies at Georgetown University

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Thanks so much for joining us on Al Jazeera.
Great to get your perspective. Thank you