Caribbean & Central America - May 2024

In early April Honduras’ military (FFAA) announced that in the first quarter of 2024, authorities had destroyed over 2.9m coca bushes and nearly 1.4 tonnes (t) of cocaine. Coca production has been on the rise in Honduras since 2017, when the first coca plantation was discovered in the department of Olancho, a mountainous area in the east of Honduras near the border with Nicaragua. Coca cultivation in Honduras remains minimal compared with South American countries like Colombia, Peru, and Bolivia. Nonetheless the latest seizures will fuel fears that Honduras could be continuing to evolve from its traditional role as a transportation corridor. The claims of progress vis-à-vis coca eradication come amid reports of a dramatic reduction in cocaine seizures last year.

According to the 2 April FFAA statement, as well as the seizure and destruction of coca bushes, some 418,900 marijuana plants that were being cultivated on 77 hectares (ha) of land were seized during the first quarter of 2024, as well as a further 3,765 pounds of processed marijuana. At least 68 firearms and 1,877 projectile weapons were also seized during antinarcotics raids.

The FFAA statement adds that the seizures are part of the strategy of the leftist Partido Libertad y Refundación (Libre) government led by President Xiomara Castro for combating narcotrafficking, which includes “the eradication of illicit crops, the destruction of basic drug production structures, and the interdiction and neutralisation of related criminal structures.” It also notes that Honduran authorities have been targeting narcotics-related crime using a combination of “land, air and sea” operations, which so far have yielded “positive results”. Having previously identified the fight against drug trafficking as one of its top priorities for 2024, the FFAA indicated in a previous (27 March) statement that it has strengthened its capacity for ground, maritime and aerial mobility to more effectively target areas of drug cultivation and production.

While the authorities highlight the latest seizures as evidence of progress in the war against narcotics, the latest figures on cocaine seizures for 2023 tallied by specialist website Insight Crime on 20 March reveal that Honduras saw a “dramatic” 93% drop in cocaine seizures from 2022 to 2023. Insight Crime cites police (PN) data which shows that the country confiscated only 470kg of cocaine in 2023 compared to 7.1t the previous year. It adds that these figures “suggest that the country is losing predominance as a transit point,” but points out that “the government’s efforts to eradicate coca crops indicate coca cultivation has taken root in the country.” According to the same outlet, Honduran authorities eradicated 4.7m coca bushes in 2023, which, while down from the record 6.5m registered in 2022, is still “massively higher than 2021’s half a million plants”.

Coca in Guatemala

In its round-up, Insight Crime highlights the increase in coca cultivation in Guatemala – a situation also highlighted by other recent reports such as ‘Narcofiles: The New Criminal Order’, published in November 2023 by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), a global consortium of investigative media. According to the OCCRP report, data obtained from Guatemala’s interior ministry shows coca cultivation has “skyrocketed since the country reported finding its first coca plantation in May 2018.” According to the Insight Crime round-up, last year the authorities nearly doubled the amount of coca bushes destroyed in Guatemala, reaching 7.9m, compared to around 4m in 2022.

Cocaine seizures elsewhere

According to Insight Crime, Costa Rican authorities seized 21.4t of cocaine in 2023. It adds that this figure is 13.4% less than the previous year but highlights the key role played by drug trafficking in the country’s security crisis: Costa Rica registered a record 907 homicides in 2023, up from 654 in 2022 which itself was a record year [SSR-24-01].

Insight Crime also highlights a drop in cocaine seizures in Guatemala, where 5t of cocaine was seized in 2023, down from 5.9t in 2022. It attributes the drop to a shift in routes from Central America to Caribbean nations, like Jamaica.

Also singled out in the round-up is Panama, which confiscated 95.67t of cocaine in 2023. While down 12% on 2022, Insight Crime points out that the 2023 figure means Panama still seized more cocaine than any country besides Colombia and Ecuador in Latin America and the Caribbean.