US vows to invest 'billions' in Colombia's countryside to combat drug trafficking

President Ivan Duque (L) and DFC CEO Adam Boehler (Image: President's Office)


by Adriaan Alsema January 17, 2020

The United States government will invest “billions of dollars” in rural development as part of its counternarcotics strategy in Colombia, a top official said Thursday.

During a visit to Tumaco, Colombia’s top cocaine-producing locality, Adam Boehler of the recently founded International Development Finance Corporation (DFC), said that “it’s critical that we not only focus on eradication, but on the positive side of things and the development side.”

. . .

In a joint press conference with Boehler and US ambassador Philip Goldberg, President Ivan Duque said the DFC would invest almost $5 billion in the countryside where state neglect has historically led to violence and illicit activities like drug trafficking.

. . .

Washington has long promoted repressive measures like forced eradication and aerial fumigation to curb cocaine production as part of its “War on Drugs.”

The UN’s Office on Drug and Crime (UNODC) has long insisted that crop substitution and rural development are more effective to curb the cultivation of illicit crops like coca, the base ingredient of cocaine.

More:
https://colombiareports.com/us-vows-to-invest-billions-in-colombias-countryside-to-combat-drug-trafficking/

Why is Duque pretending to be digging up a coca plant?