Jessica is a social leader from Putumayo on Colombia’s southern border with Ecuador. Jessica’s story spotlights the stigmatisation and violence associated with coca farming, as well as the welfare benefits and development it brings to families, communities and whole regions – it’s a story of resilience, violence and tough trade-offs. The comic was created by […]
Jessica: Coca growing, violence and development in Colombia
By Louise Ball and Andrei Gomez Suarez Jessica is a social leader from Putumayo on Colombia’s southern border with Ecuador. Her story spotlights the stigmatisation and violence associated with coca farming, as well as the welfare benefits and development it brings to families and communities – it’s a story of hardship, resilience and tough trade-offs. […]
In the world’s forgotten borderlands, the drug trade helps people survive – but at a cost
Conventional thinking about illicit drugs, development and violence are deeply flawed, here’s why.
Colombia faces a second deadly threat
Alongside COVID-19, violent forced eradication of illicit crops is taking its toll. A new database is documenting that on-going violence.
Voices from the borderlands 2020
Insights into how illicit drugs – and drug policies – impact the dynamics of violence and peace, poverty and development, and insecurity and resilience.
Una conversación sobre erradicación forzada, PNIS y los acuerdos con campesinos cultivadores de cultivos de uso ilícito
This video is currently only available in Spanish. Entrevista virtuale con Pedro Arenas, investigador de la Corporación Viso Mutop.
Forced eradication: a policy that kills
Making visible incidents of violence and confrontation related to Colombia’s forced eradication of illicit crops policy.
Las Guardias Cimarronas y su rol en el control territorial del norte del Cauca
This video is currently only available in Spanish. Entrevista virtuale con Victor Hugo Moreno Mina, uno de los líderes de estas guardias del norte del Cauca en Colombia.
Adapting Drugs & (dis)order to the COVID-19 pandemic
From home-working and research activities to altered politics. Here’s how we’re adapting to new circumstances.
El PNIS en terreno: Voces del campesinado cocalero
Los principales hallazgos obtenidos de la encuesta aplicada a usuarios del Programa Nacional Integral de Sustitución de cultivos de uso ilícito (PNIS) en los municipios de Tumaco y Puerto Asís. Currently only available in Spanish.
After coca, what? Colombia’s failing illicit crop substitution programme
Coca farmers are wanting to engage with the national illicit crop substitution programme. But patience is wearing thin. They need viable alternatives, now.
Ana Maria Arjona on illicit drugs and public engagement in Colombia
Ana Maria Arjona, former director of CESED at the Universidad de Los Andes in Colombia talks about the importance of policy and public engagement for transforming illicit drug economies into sustainable peacetime economies.
The intimidation and assassination of social leaders: Colombia’s other pandemic
Social leader Marco Rivadeneira was murdered during the COVID-19 mayhem – intimidation has not ceased as has been reported.
Camilo Acero Vargas on tough trade-offs for Colombia’s coca farmers
Camilo Acero Vargas, Political Scientist at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia talks about the positive and negative impacts of coca economies for farmers.
Francisco Gutierrez on the war on drugs and the politicisation of evidence
Francisco Gutierrez from Universidad Nacional de Colombia, talks about how issues related to drugs and conflict, and how best to tackle illicit economies, are not only about policy, but also about politics.
Literature review on illegal drugs in Latin America
A summary of academic literature on illegal drugs in Latin America published in 2018.
States, markets and violence in drug-affected borderlands
Experts share insights from fieldwork in the drug-affected borderlands of Afghanistan, Colombia and Myanmar at the SOAS Development Studies Seminar.
Colombia´s anti-drugs policies: evidence versus ideology
Crop substitution is being underfunded and coercion prioritised. Christian Aid’s Thomas Mortensen explains why.
There is still time to make Colombia’s illicit crop substitution programme work
This blog shares the key results of a survey with coca farmers in two of Colombia’s highest coca producing regions.
Conflictos cocaleros en Colombia
These articles are currently only available in Spanish. Cuatro artículos publicados en la revista Análisis Político (Vol. 32, Numero 97 (2019): Conflictos cocaleros en Colombia). Mujeres y coca: una relación agridulce (Women and coca: a bittersweet relationship). María Mónica Parada Hernández, Margarita Marín Jaramill. Tensiones y dilemas de la producción cocalera (Tensions and dilemmas in […]