Bogota, May 15 (EFE).– Colombian Defense Minister Juan Carlos Pinzon is convinced that, based on the volume of drugs seized this year, cocaine production in the country is on the rise, officials told Efe.

Pinzon made that statement in a speech given in Medellin this Thursday, the same day that the National Drug Council, or CNE, approved the suspension of the use of glyphosate for spraying illegal crops in order to eradicate them, after the World Health Organization, or WHO, classified the herbicide as a potential carcinogen.

“I see that we’re confiscating 20 percent more cocaine, and at first I was congratulating my military and my police and of course I won’t stop congratulating them – but at the same time I say: Isn’t this because we’re producing more? Unfortunately, yes,” Pinzon said.

Defense Ministry officials told Efe that this isn’t the first time the minister has made such statements, which are particularly relevant now that the debate over the eradication of coca crops has intensified.

The CNE’s decision was backed by five ministers, including the head of defense, who voted in favor of suspending the use of glyphosate in line with the position of Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos.

Of the eight people who made up the quorum to decide the matter, only Attorney General Alejandro Ordoñez was opposed to ending the use of the herbicide.

Defenders of glyphosate say that in regions where spraying it has been suspended or restricted, such as the southern province of Putumayo on the Ecuadorian border, and particularly in the Catatumbo region bordering on Venezuela, the amount of land used for growing coca has doubled over the past few years.

Glyphosate has been used in Colombia for close to 30 years to spray illegal crops as part of the war on drugs promoted by the United States, which this week said that it will respect Colombia’s decision on the matter.

According to the latest report by the International Narcotics Control Board, or INCB, published last March, the supply of cocaine coming from South America continues to decline, in line with the trend in recent years, though differences are to be found country by country. For example, production in Peru and Bolivia dropped in 2013 but remained the same in Colombia.

Over the past seven years, the total area used for growing the coca plant decreased by a third in those three countries, but in Colombia that trend came to a halt in 2013.

In 2013 some 48,000 hectares (119,000 acres) were dedicated to growing coca in Colombia, the same as in the previous year, while in 2012 it dropped 25 percent compared with 2011. EFE