[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he Colombian government and representatives of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerrilla launched Sunday, in the township of Briceño, Antioquia, the voluntary illicit crop substitution program, as agreed by both sides during the four-year-long peace talks in Havana, Cuba.
Briceño is one of ten villages which agreed to the substitution program as part of a pilot “laboratory” for the post-conflict and as a “gesture of trust.” The ceremony was presided by the Minister for Post-conflict Rafael Pardo and Felix Antonio Muñoz, alias “Pastor Alape,” of the FARC’s negotiating team.
The ceremony was attended by the mayor of Briceño, José Danilo Agudelo, the resident coordinator of the United Nations, Belén Sanz and director of the Anti-Drugs Office, Eduardo Díaz.
The illicit crop substitution program will benefit 400 families whose livelihoods are dependent on coca farming. The aim of this first-ever collaboration between FARC and the Colombian government is to help subsistence farmers transition to other crops and diversify their agricultural base. “In two months we hope to have a roadmap and commitments to begin the replacement [of illicit crops],” stated Pardo. Other municipalities in the department of Antioquia, which have joined the effort are Pueblo Nuevo, La Calera, La America, El Pescado, La Mina, Buena Vista, Altos De Chiri, Roblal and Palmichal.
The process to destroy coca plants in this remote and mountainous region of central Colombia will be gradual. “No farmer gets rich planting coca […] what is important is to provide supply chains for products,” stated Pardo from Briceño.
The objective is to replicate the model to other regions with the post-conflict and work in conflict zones to begin replacing the estimated 96,000 hectares of cultivated coca in the country. “The existence of this high volume of illicit crops makes the sustainability of peace that much more difficult, “said Pardo. “If there is one coca plant, there will be a buyer and groups that threaten the peace through use of violence.”
The FARC have pledged to help quantify the amount of the coca grown in the region and accompany farmers throughout the erradication and substitution process. For the guerrilla’s alias “Pastor Alape” the program also reveals FARC’s fundamental change of vision from “combat role” to “finding solutions” for Colombian farmers.
