What’s new? Coca crops have set record yields in Colombia since the 2016 peace accord with FARC guerrillas, persuading the government to expand its forced eradication campaign with the backing of U.S. authorities. Bogotá claims that eliminating the plant will reduce rural violence.
Why does it matter? Insecurity in Colombia’s countryside has steadily got worse in recent years as armed groups vie with one another and the military for supremacy. Enhanced eradication, and potentially aerial fumigation, could intensify violence by forcing farmers into the clutches of armed outfits, while failing to stop the replanting of coca.
What should be done? Colombia and the U.S., the lead outside backer of tough counter-narcotic policies in Latin America, should turn the page on using force against coca farmers in a bid to dent global cocaine supply. Boosting rural economies, forging ahead with crop substitution and avoiding clashes with cultivators would make for better policy.
Serious Decisions Denounced Against Democracy in Colombia (Image by Fiscalía Colombia on twitter)
Control bodies, such as the Attorney General’s Office, the Ombudsman’s Office and the Prosecutor General’s Office, all of which are now headed by officials of the government coalition, have taken two decisions that go against democracy and the Human Rights Protection Measurement System.
By: Zenaida Espinosa Cabrera
Political analyst Ariel Ávila announced this week that the government and the control bodies, such as the Attorney General’s Office, the Ombudsman’s Office and the Prosecutor General’s Office, all headed by officials of the coalition government, have taken two decisions that go against democracy and the Human Rights Protection Measurement System: