Peru's president highlights success in fight against drug-trafficking

Peru's President Ollanta Humala announced Tuesday his administration's achievements mainly in fighting against drug trafficking between 2011 and 2015 during his term of office.

"We have recovered 98,000 hectares for national agriculture which had been used for growing illegal coca leaves," Humala said in a speech at the 194th anniversary of Peru's independence. "We hope to double this figure next year and benefit 30,000 Peruvians," he added.

The recovered fields are now used to grow cocoa, coffee and pineapple among other food stuffs, rather than destined for the South American country's drug-trafficking trade, against which Humala determined to fight particularly focusing on recovering and converting land usage.

Other successes of the four-year government include destroying a vast amount of narcotics such as cocaine, marijuana, heroine and other substances. "Also it has burned almost 150,000 kilograms of drugs," Humala told 30 million Peruvians during his annual speech.

Besides, Humala's government has seized 6,500 kilograms of chemical supplies and destroyed more than 3,000 chemical laboratories used to manufacture cocaine.

In terms of security, Humala said that the new punishments of more than 25 years in prison involving killings and extortion have helped decrease the crime rate in the country.

In addition, Humala touched on his achievements in terms of road construction, education, housing, transport and health, yet minimum wage increase and public security improvment were not mentioned looking into the last stages of his government less than a year. Endit