In 2017, Eiber, 24, left the ranks of the Marxist FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia), thanks to the peace agreement signed a year earlier.
The agreement provided for a retraining of the fighters, and made the young man hope that he could devote himself to agriculture in the Catatumbo region, bordering Venezuela, where the largest quantity of drug crops in the world is concentrated ( 40,084 hectares in 2020 according to the UN).
Like many of the 13,000 ex-combatants of the defunct FARC, Eiber, enlisted at 10, now feels cheated.
The promised money never arrived, he criticizes. Back in civilian life, he finds himself without resources, without work.
With a young wife and a dependent child, the choice is quickly made: he will be a coca farmer.
– Mines and banners –
“None of our presidents has ever come to our aid”, accuses Eiber, busy harvesting, under a blazing sun and in the middle of the coca fields, the precious green leaf at the base of the cocaine paste.
Several of his former comrades-in-arms have taken up the maquis within the dissident FARC which rejects the 2016 agreement. The rival ELN, a Guevarist guerrilla, also operates in this area.
Signs in the mountains, praising their “popular struggle”, testify to the influence of the two groups. The ELN’s black and red banner adorns many of the roads leading to the fields. More prosaically, other signs warn against anti-personnel mines laid by guerrillas.
In power since the beginning of August, the new left-wing president Gustavo Petro has constantly denounced the failure of the fight against drugs led for four decades by his predecessors. A war that left tens of thousands dead, police, soldiers, peasants, judges, journalists, traffickers… In vain since Colombia remains the leading producer and exporter of cocaine in the world.
Fueling the violence of armed groups raging in isolated regions, the number of hectares planted in Colombia is similar to that of 2016 (around 145,000).
“Petro must help us (…) to see what we can change, because if he does not help us, we will continue, even if it is a crime”, warns Eiber.
Three other ex-guerrillas work alongside him on a small six-hectare farm. Meager plantations of coffee, cocoa and bananas are mixed with coca, but no crop is as profitable as the forbidden leaf.
For each kilo of dough produced, the ex-FARC pay about 400 dollars. A paste that they then resell to traffickers, which does not prevent them from imposing a “war tax” on the other products of the farm, including the family vegetable garden.
– “Ideal moment” –
Visiting the Catatumbo last Friday, President Petro proposed an unprecedented dialogue with coca growers to discuss a transition to the legal economy.
Petro promises rural reform to boost food production and economic benefits for those who abandon illicit crops.
Carlos Abril, 25, a FARC member from the age of 13, has heard such promises before. Today, he strives to “not return” to arms. “We entered the process (of disarmament) with joy, with the hope that we would see a new Colombia in peace. (…) But necessity made us return to the illegality of coca”, regrets he.
In a wooden hut, the coca fields in the background, a dozen representatives of peasants and coca growers met, in the presence of AFP, in anticipation of the discussions to come.
Many say they are threatened by armed groups but also soldiers.
For Elizabeth Pabon, leader of the Catatumbo Campesino association, this is the “perfect time” to give up coca.
“We are eagerly awaiting the words of President Petro, who says there will be no forced eradication or fumigation, but that it will be an agreement with the communities (…) it’ is a relief,” she said on behalf of 6,000 local farmers.
The disarmament of armed groups would contribute to the abandonment of coca production to make way for the sale of food at “fair prices”, she underlines.
“We are prepared to replace them with a government with which we consider it easier to dialogue”, even dares Wilder Mora, leader of the COCCAM farmers’ coordination.
