FARC Peace Deal Could Shift Tide of Colombia’s Drug War

The latest figures released by the United Nations indicate that Colombia has retaken the title of world’s largest cocaine producer, with some 69,000 hectares of land used for growing coca. After years of declining production, the U.N. estimates cocaine production in Colombia will increase by 52 percent this year.

Only two years ago, Peru overtook Colombia as the top producer of coca and processed cocaine, as Bruno Binetti and Ben Raderstorf explained in their WPR feature this week. “Unlike most of its neighbors, Peru lacks a comprehensive strategy to fight drug trafficking, instead preferring to downplay the issue . . . Moreover, police corruption is well-documented, and initiatives to reform the security forces have been sporadic and ineffective.”

In Colombia, on the other hand, there is a strategy to fight drug trafficking: Plan Colombia, a U.S. military and diplomatic initiative targeting drug cartels and insurgent groups. But as Adam Isacson wrote last month, U.S. aid to Colombia and Plan Colombia will have to be recalibrated if a peace deal with the guerilla group known as the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, is reached: