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May 18, 202110 min read

Crop substitution programs were central to the 2016 peace deal: Signees have been left in the lurch.

Updated: Jun 13, 2022

Attempts to deal with illicit crops affect many stakeholders; illegal groups respond to this possibility with violence against social leaders promoting crop substitution like Gloria Ocampo (l) and Plinio Pulgarin (r). The government is preference is the aerial spraying of crops with harmful pesticides.

For more than five decades Colombia has lived through an internal armed conflict that has atrociously violated the human rights of thousands of people. Faced with this situation, the Colombian State, after several decades of blood and pain, decided to sign an agreement with one of these armed groups (The FARC-EP guerrilla movement) that have caused so much damage in the country. The signing was desired by half of the Colombian population based on the 2016 plebiscite on the issue. This agreement sought, in the first instance, to put an end to the armed conflict and, at the same time, to carry out reforms that would help ensure the transition of all armed actors to civil society. It also focused on creating structural changes in the areas of civil society most affected by the conflict. Vulnerable and marginalized territories of society that suffered killings, disappearances, rape and constant threats to their well-being. Most of these communities have been affected by a common factor, illicit crops. According to the peace agreement, the persistence of these illicit crops is linked to the existence of conditions of poverty, marginalization, weak institutional presence, as well as the existence of criminal organizations dedicated to drug trafficking. For this reason, one of the important points of the agreement is the “illicit crop substitution program” (PNIS for its initials in Spanish), which basically focuses on assisting communities with the presence of illicit crops, to help them, economically and socially, to make the transition from the planting of illicit crops to the planting of food crops that allow a stable and lasting economic development in these territories historically abandoned by the state. Unfortunately, since the signing of the agreements, the implementation of this point has been an almost impossible task. The absence of the FARC-EP has been replaced by the presence of other illegal groups that have filled the power vacuum and renewed the FARC’s illicit activities. This is because drug trafficking, especially cocaine, is a billion-dollar business that has served to finance the war of the armed groups against the Colombian government. For this reason, the crop substitution program has made little progress, and in the process, many Colombians have lost their lives. Furthermore, the government of current president Ivan Duque has chosen to tackle the issue of illicit crops with aerial spraying of pesticides; an approach with serious environmental and health implications.This article will focus on explaining in depth and in detail what the illicit crop substitution program (PNIS) is, analyzing the consequences that this agreement has had and its degree of compliance. It will also analyze the effects on civil society, such as the violation of human rights and its derivatives. To achieve this, we will study the statistics of people who have been killed trying to defend their territories, and the role of social leaders, as well as the position of the Colombian government regarding these cases.


The peace agreement marked the end of the longest war in the history of Colombia. It was expected that this would open a new chapter in the country which would hopefully for the first time in 50 years, live in peace. However, far from this era of peace, what has occurred is a new wave of violence. Since the signing of the peace agreement, the most affected actors in terms of violence have been social leaders and human rights defenders. But what is a social leader and what is a human rights defender? According to Amnesty International, a social leader is a person recognized by his or her community for leading, coordinating or supporting collective processes or activities that positively affect the life of his or her community, improve and dignify their living conditions or build social fabric (2020). On the other hand, human rights defenders are responsible for defending and promoting the protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms at the local, national and international level (Amnesty International, 2020). Sadly, human rights defenders have suffered systematic persecution for their work since the signing of the peace accords, with Human Rights Watch commenting that these people have been assassinated for supporting or participating in projects to replace coca crops – the raw material of cocaine – for food crops (2021). These crimes have affected nearly every department of Colombia, some worse than others such as the case of Cauca or Choco. However, the Caribbean region has also seen a constant wave of violence in certain sub-regions since the agreement was signed in 2016.


Before the signing of the agreement, the departments of Bolivar, Cordoba, and Cesar had suffered due to the presence of illegal groups. This is due to the fact that in these territories there has always been illicit crop cultivation, which has helped all these groups to finance their war against the state and to profit economically from this market. For this reason, it is not surprising that since the signing of the peace accords, these territories have been the most affected in terms of violence. The reinsertion of the FARC into civil society resulted in a power vacuum in these areas abandoned by the state, which other armed groups and dissidents were happy to fill. The interest in this area, coca cultivation, has caused the murder and disappearance of thousands of people. This is why the implementation of the agreement, and more specifically, the illicit crop substitution program, has brought so much bloodshed. Replacing coca crops with food has been an impossible task. Most of the people who have historically grown coca were small scale farmers, owners of small plots of land or simply civilians in these territories who had to support their families in some way, since the state did not and historically has not taken care of them. Many of these coca growers were enthusiastic about the peace agreement, and the crop substitution program, since it offered them a path to more formal production and in theory, would offer them more security as they would not be dependent on violent illegal groups for their livelihood. However, as was mentioned previously, several other illegal groups moved quickly to replace the FARC in the territories they had controlled. These groups see crop substitution as a threat to their business interests and as such, there has been a sharp rise in violence against those involved in crop substitution. According to UNCaribe, between November 2016 and July 2018, 31 leaders were killed in the Caribbean region. In 2019, citing “La Silla Vacia”, 15 social leaders were killed in the Caribbean Region, and finally in 2020, based on Indepaz, at least 31 more cases were reported (UNCaribe, 2020). However, it is also important to highlight that in addition to the hectares of coca crops and the substitution program, there are other causes that promote the systematic violation of human rights in this region. In the first place, we found that violence against these people takes place in territories where illegal armed groups (ELN guerrillas, AGC or Clan del Golfo, ACSN or the Pachencas and Los Caparros being the chief protagonists in the region) are present. Secondly, in these territories, for some time now, there have been different local wars between insurgent groups seeking criminal hegemony or territorial control. And thirdly, the weak institutional presence of the State that has been filled by other actors that have caused only terror. The killings of social leaders represents one of the most visible consequences of this situation.


While the statistics mentioned above demonstrate the scale of the problem both nationally and regionally, it is also necessary to look at individual cases. We can talk about three specific cases, including cases both at the national level and in the Caribbean region.It is important to know about these types of cases in order to see how these problems are reflected in society, to know a little more about the reality that many families have to live without the protection of the State. First, taking into account the research of La paz en el terreno, we will discuss the case of Gloria Ocampo who was a social leader who guided the processes of substitution of illicit crops in Putumayo. She was murdered in La Estrella, a village in the municipality of Puerto Guzmán, Putumayo. She had been the secretary of the Junta de Acción Comunal (Communal Action Boards; micro-organisations representing the interests of small communities) in the village of La Estrella. The victim had participated as a delegate of the Development Plans with a Territorial Approach, a program born in the Peace Accord aimed at 170 municipalities in the country that have suffered high levels of violence. Two men came to the door of her house asking for Gloria and murdered her and an elderly man in front of her 12-year-old daughter and her husband. No one has been punished for this crime and authorities presume that the crime was planned by illegal armed groups. One such example from the Caribbean region was Plinio Jose Pulgarin, who was a member of the Association of Farmers of Southern Córdoba and a leader of the Community Action Board of the San Pedrito village in San José de Uré. He, since 2012, had worked with the community for the substitution of illicit crops and was waiting for the approval of a project where he intended to evaluate new crop possibilities to replace coca. On January 18, 2018, in the midst of a territorial dispute between the Clan del Golfo/AGC and ‘Los Caparrapos’, armed men entered Pulgarin’s house and killed him. The two groups mentioned are among the illegal structures currently disputing territorial control in the region. They are armed groups that are part of the country’s internal armed conflict and carry out massacres, assassinations, extortion, forced displacements and run drug trafficking and illegal mining businesses. Before shooting him, the men, who wore army fatigues, enquired about his participation in the eradication of coca crops and his support for the peace process with the FARC. After this event,133 families were displaced; 425 people living in the villages of Alto Mira San Perito, Trapichero, La Ilusión and part of the Embera Katío indigenous community of Dochamá were forced to flee their homes due to concerns over their safety. Following Pulgarin’s murder, the Clan del Golfo/AGC issued a statement saying it had not been the perpetrator of the crime. But according to the commander of Police Region 6, the illegal organisation was indeed the perpetrator of the crime. Another case that caused a great commotion in the country was that of Manuel Osuna, 67 years old, who was found decapitated in the scorched wreck of his house. Manuel had worked with the Association of Farmers of Southern Cordoba (ASCSUCOR), was a land defender and also worked on crop substitution issues. To conclude, it is clear that these cases are nothing more than a collateral effect of a set of policies that have affected the entire Colombian population for many years. These communities placed their hopes on a peace agreement which does not enjoy the support of the government which signed it. They have no support or help from the State and their lives are in daily danger for defending their lands and rights.


So what has been the state’s response to these violations. On account of the murders of social leaders, the UN has investigated the situation of social leaders in Colombia, meaning detailed reports on the situation are delivered from the UN human rights department, which puts Colombia in everyone’s sights. Since 2020 the country has developed a CONPES document, a document created by the national council for social economic policy; this council serves as an advisor to the government in the development of the country and is the document that gives rise to public policies. In this case,the interior ministry will work at the national level together with the council. This plan will have an emphasis on the different affected regions, which is why it will work in alliance with the mayors, governors, police forces and control entities of each region of the country, according to El Tiempo (2020). The President directly controls information, in order to take the most effective measures, thus joining the national protection unit and the early warning protection system; in theory having 3 programs to protect leaders. Apart from the UN, multiple organizations have made recommendations to the government on this issue. Human Rights Watch suggested in a report that Colombia: “Start a process with genuine participation of civil society organizations and international human rights and humanitarian organizations that operate in Colombia to simplify and reinforce the prevention and protection mechanisms provided for in Colombian law, including the reform or repeal of ineffective mechanisms that have an unclear mandate “(HRW, 2020). Furthermore, we consider that the state should establish a true institutional presence in the zones and have much more effective protection plans and mechanisms, either by creating new ones or improving the current ones. The reaction of society is also vital, because the more noise is made, the more attention will be paid to this issue, positioning it at the top of the political agenda.


To conclude, it is important to note that despite the existence of a signed peace agreement in Colombia, more efforts are still required. These efforts should come not only from the government, which must guarantee at all costs the full compliance of all points and the security of the citizens affected by it, but also from civil society, which has the enormous responsibility to raise its voice against all these violations, because what happens in Colombia concerns us all equally. On the other hand, it is a priority that the government works hard to promote the security of the leaders who have been affected by agreeing to voluntarily opting for the substitution of illicit crops. It is vital to remember that most of these people are in marginalized territories abandoned by the state. Therefore, the presence of the state in these departments must be a fact. Another solution to the problem concerning the substitution of illicit crops is the decriminalization of drugs in Colombia. The legalization of these substances could be key not only to ending drug trafficking, but could also serve to eliminate Colombia’s armed groups from their primary source of financing. This would lead directly to the eradication of these crops and the pressures to which civilians in these territories are subjected. Unfortunately, Colombia is far from implementing this idea, and on the contrary continues to penalize and persecute those in contact with illegal drugs, despite the growing move towards decriminalisation in other parts of the world. Colombian society must advance in terms of culture and civility to be able to even think about embracing this possibility. To conclude, although the road ahead is still long, it does not mean that it is impossible. Just as the government has the task of complying with the agreement and exercising its role, we as civil society also have the mission of denouncing and being the voice of many who have violently and unjustly lost theirs.


*Article written by Melissa Martinez, Paula Pinedo & Victor Ramirez


References


(Amnesty International 2020 report on human rights defenders in Colombia)


A Death Foretold: Colombia’s Crop Substitution Program

Insight crime, crop substitution



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