Helen Murphy
By Helen Murphy
For farmers like Angel Escue, Colombia’s bid to end half a century of war with Marxist rebels may come at too high a price.
Stripping leaves from an illegal coca bush at his small plot in the mountains of central Cauca department, Escue says a peace deal with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, could sink him deeper into poverty even if it ends almost daily firefights in the area. “We pray for an end to the violence, but not at any cost,” 61-year-old Escue says as he hunches over the bright green coca scrub in Toribio, a rebel stronghold that processes the leaves into cocaine. “They want us to switch to crops that won’t bring enough money to feed a family; we can’t do that.”
Three months before the presidential election, government envoys and FARC commanders are working through the third item on a five-point peace agenda — the illegal drugs industry, and how to rid Colombia of coca.
Negotiations to end the conflict that has killed more than 200,000 — mostly civilians — since the 1960s is a campaign battleground ahead of the first round of voting on May 25.
President Juan Manuel Santos is favoured to win a second term and continue the peace talks that began in 2012.
This is the first election held during a peace process, so convincing farmers like Escue and others that an end to the conflict will also bring jobs is key.
The scion of one of Colombia’s most powerful families, Santos says investors are awaiting the talks’ outcome before pouring cash into the Andean nation.
His biggest challenge comes from right-wing contender Oscar Ivan Zuluaga, an ally of conservative former President Alvaro Uribe who says he would scrap the FARC talks.
Santos is seeking to compensate millions of people displaced by the war and has returned land stolen by the FARC and right-wing paramilitaries. The measures helped bring the rebels to the negotiating table, although many of those he has pledged to help are unlikely to vote for him.
Coca farmers worry they will be pushed into growing coffee, rubber or cacao, which they say require additional workers, costly fertilizers and generate less income.
“We only just make ends meet with coca,” says Escue’s sister Teresa of the weed, which needs little water and can earn double what legal crops do for each of its three annual harvests.
It also has a regular buyer in the FARC, which sends rebels to farms such as Escue’s to purchase the leaves.
While most Colombians are desperate for peace, many are wary of how much Santos is willing to offer the rebels for them to put down their weapons. That may play against him in the election.
Zuluaga and Uribe — a one-time Santos ally — are furious that FARC leaders could be handed light sentences for their crimes, and perhaps even given seats in Congress.
Almost a third of voters still say they will not mark the ballot for any candidate, pollster Gallup said recently.
The war-torn region of Cauca remains off limits for most Colombians. Violence can flare at any time, forcing villagers to hide and dodge bullets and the rebels’ homemade cylinder bombs.
Two-thirds of Cauca’s 1.4 million people live on $3 a day and dirt roads to market are frequently washed away. Subsistence farmers depend on growing coca to survive.
Many here sympathise with the FARC, trade with it and have family in its ranks. They have little faith in the government and are deeply sceptical about peace talks and the election.
As an outlet to the Pacific, Cauca is used by the FARC and criminal groups as a corridor to smuggle cocaine and marijuana to Central America and Mexico and then to the United States.
The FARC is believed to control about 60 percent of cocaine output in Colombia, one of the world’s biggest producers, netting the rebels as much as $1bn a year, the government says. FARC leaders deny involvement in drug trafficking but accept their role in coca production.
While details of negotiations in Havana remain secret, the government has said it wants total eradication of the coca crop.
Santos has suggested he would help farmers substitute coca for coffee, fruits and pepper and that peace would attract fresh private sector investment, meaning new jobs.
“It’s evident that the eradication or substitution of coca will have a cost because the families that are in this activity should have an alternative. They can’t be put in a vulnerable position,” Finance Minister Mauricio Cardenas said. “But with the same logic we can say that there are resources that today we are using for war that we could redirect to peace.”
In Cauca, military leaders say social change is key to lasting peace.
“It’s logical and understandable that they don’t believe in the peace process,” said Colonel German Lopez, commander of the heavily guarded 14th mobile brigade stationed in Caloto. “But they have to understand that the world is changing and they have to create a new culture away from coca and conflict.”
REUTERS
By Helen Murphy
For farmers like Angel Escue, Colombia’s bid to end half a century of war with Marxist rebels may come at too high a price.
Stripping leaves from an illegal coca bush at his small plot in the mountains of central Cauca department, Escue says a peace deal with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, could sink him deeper into poverty even if it ends almost daily firefights in the area. “We pray for an end to the violence, but not at any cost,” 61-year-old Escue says as he hunches over the bright green coca scrub in Toribio, a rebel stronghold that processes the leaves into cocaine. “They want us to switch to crops that won’t bring enough money to feed a family; we can’t do that.”
Three months before the presidential election, government envoys and FARC commanders are working through the third item on a five-point peace agenda — the illegal drugs industry, and how to rid Colombia of coca.
Negotiations to end the conflict that has killed more than 200,000 — mostly civilians — since the 1960s is a campaign battleground ahead of the first round of voting on May 25.
President Juan Manuel Santos is favoured to win a second term and continue the peace talks that began in 2012.
This is the first election held during a peace process, so convincing farmers like Escue and others that an end to the conflict will also bring jobs is key.
The scion of one of Colombia’s most powerful families, Santos says investors are awaiting the talks’ outcome before pouring cash into the Andean nation.
His biggest challenge comes from right-wing contender Oscar Ivan Zuluaga, an ally of conservative former President Alvaro Uribe who says he would scrap the FARC talks.
Santos is seeking to compensate millions of people displaced by the war and has returned land stolen by the FARC and right-wing paramilitaries. The measures helped bring the rebels to the negotiating table, although many of those he has pledged to help are unlikely to vote for him.
Coca farmers worry they will be pushed into growing coffee, rubber or cacao, which they say require additional workers, costly fertilizers and generate less income.
“We only just make ends meet with coca,” says Escue’s sister Teresa of the weed, which needs little water and can earn double what legal crops do for each of its three annual harvests.
It also has a regular buyer in the FARC, which sends rebels to farms such as Escue’s to purchase the leaves.
While most Colombians are desperate for peace, many are wary of how much Santos is willing to offer the rebels for them to put down their weapons. That may play against him in the election.
Zuluaga and Uribe — a one-time Santos ally — are furious that FARC leaders could be handed light sentences for their crimes, and perhaps even given seats in Congress.
Almost a third of voters still say they will not mark the ballot for any candidate, pollster Gallup said recently.
The war-torn region of Cauca remains off limits for most Colombians. Violence can flare at any time, forcing villagers to hide and dodge bullets and the rebels’ homemade cylinder bombs.
Two-thirds of Cauca’s 1.4 million people live on $3 a day and dirt roads to market are frequently washed away. Subsistence farmers depend on growing coca to survive.
Many here sympathise with the FARC, trade with it and have family in its ranks. They have little faith in the government and are deeply sceptical about peace talks and the election.
As an outlet to the Pacific, Cauca is used by the FARC and criminal groups as a corridor to smuggle cocaine and marijuana to Central America and Mexico and then to the United States.
The FARC is believed to control about 60 percent of cocaine output in Colombia, one of the world’s biggest producers, netting the rebels as much as $1bn a year, the government says. FARC leaders deny involvement in drug trafficking but accept their role in coca production.
While details of negotiations in Havana remain secret, the government has said it wants total eradication of the coca crop.
Santos has suggested he would help farmers substitute coca for coffee, fruits and pepper and that peace would attract fresh private sector investment, meaning new jobs.
“It’s evident that the eradication or substitution of coca will have a cost because the families that are in this activity should have an alternative. They can’t be put in a vulnerable position,” Finance Minister Mauricio Cardenas said. “But with the same logic we can say that there are resources that today we are using for war that we could redirect to peace.”
In Cauca, military leaders say social change is key to lasting peace.
“It’s logical and understandable that they don’t believe in the peace process,” said Colonel German Lopez, commander of the heavily guarded 14th mobile brigade stationed in Caloto. “But they have to understand that the world is changing and they have to create a new culture away from coca and conflict.”
REUTERS
