La Colombie doit enquêter immédiatement sur l’assassinat de manifestants dans la région productrice de coca et punir ceux qui en sont responsables

Actualités

La Colombie doit enquêter immédiatement sur l’assassinat de manifestants dans la région productrice de coca et punir ceux qui en sont responsables

19 octobre 2017

Plutôt que de répondre aux préoccupations de ces communautés, les forces de sécurités ont tiré aveuglément sur les manifestants, provoquant au moins huit meurtres signalés et blessant plus de cinquante personnes.

Washington, DC — On October 5, rural farmers gathered in Tumaco, Nariño department to protest forced eradication of coca crops by the security forces, with crowd size estimates ranging from 200 to more than a thousand. These farmers protested because the government refused to address local conflicts that affect how to best to implement the national crop substitution program (Programa Nacional de Sustitución de Cultivos, PNIS). Rather than address these communities’ concerns so that an effective crop substitution program be implemented, the security forces fired indiscriminately on the protestors, resulting in at least eight reported murders and over fifty wounded. The security forces claim that they were responding to an attack initiated by FARC dissidents. However, reports and witness testimony provided to the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA) from those on the ground indicate that this was not the case. WOLA calls on the U.S. government to immediately condemn this massacre and urges Colombian authorities to investigate and sanction those responsible for these abuses.

We also urge U.S. officials to tone down the rhetoric and offer constructive solutions to the coca issue. President Trump’s recent threats to decertify Colombia on account of increased coca cultivation put pressure on Colombia to show results at any cost. Fifty years of internal armed conflict and abuses committed during Plan Colombia all show that when the U.S. government gives Colombia a blank check to use force to solve security and criminal problems, this leads to increased abuses against civilians. Over the years, U.S. officials have learned that this is not the best way to affect change in Colombia. Past experience has also shown that while forced coca eradication may yield short-term results, it is ineffective in the medium to long-term if farmers are not provided with alternative sources of income. Rather than extol unhelpful rhetoric on the drug issue, U.S. officials should focus on providing Colombia with the funding and tools it needs to implement the peace accord in coca-growing areas. Building infrastructure, strengthening governmental institutions, addressing corruption, and creating economic opportunities for rural farmers will take time. However, this approach will have better results in the long run.

The most complicated part of implementing the peace accord with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) is the drug chapter. The FARC agreed to stop engaging in the drug trade and help with reducing coca cultivation, in return for the Colombian government addressing the socio-economic problems that drive rural farmers to grow coca. Creating sustainable and lucrative economies for rural farmers in these remote areas of the country—where there is little infrastructure to get goods to markets, and poor state presence (if any at all) in terms of education, health, and other services—is hard. Coca production and illicit economies do not blossom in a vacuum. They develop when there is poverty, marginalization, extreme socio-economic conditions, and a lack of effective state response to communities’ needs and problems. Frequently, it is the most marginalized, poor, rural, and vulnerable communities where coca is grown due to lack of other economic options.

Click here to read the full article.

Traductions