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Illicit Crops and Alternative Development in Colombia
Introduction
Anders Rudqvist
Colombia • the world’s largest producer of cocaine
• the largest heroin producer in the American hemisphere
• Coca and poppy cultivation is taking place in regions or areas where presence of the State (army, public institutions) is weak (physically, politically and socially)
Main actors
• Direct producers – small-scale and medium peasants – ”industrial” producers
• Criminal cartels – from a few large to many small
• Paramilitary groups – extreme right wing
• Guerrillas – FARC, ELN
• Army and Police forces
The main actors in the Colombian
narcotics circuit varyingly described as • a national political project• an army attempting to take over power • a territorial power • an actor in the local conflicts of the ”Other
Colombia”• a way of life - rent seekers - groups of
criminals • actor in context of local degenerated violence
Territorial control
• Illicit crop cultivation and drug trafficking require territorial control
• production and trafficking, as well as the very armed conflict are focused upon territorial control
• have resulted in drastically increasing indices of land concentration
Demand and Supply side
• What are consumer countries doing?
• Terms and conditions of international trade
• Subsidized exports of agricultural produce
• Prevention, treatment and care for drug addicts and consumers at risk
• What are producer countries doing?
• Social, economic conditions of peasant producers - land tenure/reforms
• Measures against political and economic corruption
Policies for reduction of illicit crops and drug trafficking
• The US and the Colombian government:
• Repression/interdiction combined with aerial fumigation and compulsory alternative development programs
• The UN and EU: interdiction combined with voluntary alternative development programs – opposed to aerial fumigation
Common features and patterns Colombia Afghanistan Laos
• Societies torn by internal warfare• Role of illicit crops and trafficking for war
efforts• Weak central State vs. strong local/regional
forces• Sociological factors - livelihoods approach• What have we learned from evolution of
IDPs and regional development projects?
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