Growing coca leaf is the only way to put food on the table for many in rural Colombia. Most of Colombia’s coca growers say they only do it because they have no alternative options and distance themselves from rapacious drug traffickers. In 2016, a landmark agreement was signed, which forced Colombia’s coca farmers to give up illegal cultivation. The crop substitution payments didn’t reach them, while the army forcefully uprooted their coca plants. Did this new legislation bring any solution?
Authors
The Coca Trap
