Amid a cocaine boom in Colombia, a deeper problem is emerging

pulse

October 17, 2017 4:56 AM

The recent killing of Colombian farmers by police has raised concerns about the government's ability to secure peace, fight the drug trade, and stop criminals.

Colombia's cocaine trade and organized-crime groups are resurgent.
That activity raises concerns about the country's struggling peace process.
Economic uncertainty and ongoing violence also pose a threat to marginalized communities.

On October 5, a standoff between a Colombian coca-eradication team and hundreds of farmers ended with several farmers dead and hundreds wounded.

The incident appears to be the most violent action by Colombian security forces against civilians in some time and underscores the burden Colombia faces in the overlapping challenges of spiking cocaine production, demobilizing left-wing rebels, and confronting powerful criminal groups.

The incident took place in Tumaco, an isolated municipality in southwest Colombia's Nariño state, where security forces arrived in late September to begin manual eradication of coca, from which cocaine is made.

People in the area gathered to protect their fields and protest the security forces' presence. On October 5, farmers and security forces were in the middle of a multiday standoff in a rural area of Tumaco.

Several hundred unarmed civilians were reportedly gathered around security forces in a coca field, forming a human chain to halt their eradication efforts. According to one witness, the farmers and officers had agreed to negotiations when police opened fire with rifles and stun grenades.

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Colombia has seen a profound increase in cocaine production in recent years, and Tumaco has led the way.

According to UN data, during 2016, Tumaco had more than 57,000 acres of coca under cultivation, more than half the 105,000 acres recorded in Nariño, which produces nearly 30% of Colombia's coca. During the first quarter of 2017, Colombian authorities seized 32.8 metric tons of cocaine in Tumaco alone — one-third of the national total.

In Tumaco, like other marginalized areas of the country, coca production and the drug trade have taken root in part because other economic activities are unviable.

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