Colombia: Colombia Is Trying to Root out the Cocaine Trade, but Farmers Are Relying on It as an 'Insurance Policy'

Mar 22, 2018 | Christopher Woody, Business Insider
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Colombia has faced pressure from the US to clamp down on the cocaine surge, but there were a variety of factors that drove it through 2016, when the government signed a peace accord with left-wing rebel group Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC. Under that deal, the government has pursued crop-substitution and alternative-development programs to pull farmers away from coca. But a lack of resources has hindered implementation of those programs, and in lieu of an alternative, Colombian growers have forged ahead with the only one they can grow profitably.