La erradicación de los cultivos de hoja de coca: ¿realidad o utopía? Un estudio comparado entre Bolivia y Colombia

Abstract

Following the Final Peace Agreement of 2016 between the Colombian Government and the FARC regarding the solution to the problem of illicit drugs, the objective of this article is to contribute to the knowledge of the policy of eradication and substitution of coca leaf crops from a comprehensive perspective, reflecting on the strengths and weaknesses of the applied strategies at a time when crops in Colombia have increased to record numbers. For a better understanding of the subject, the paper makes a comparison between what has happened in Bolivia and Colombia in terms of the anti-drug policy applied by the United States, the consequences, the differences and common factors present in the problem of eradication and substitution of the coca leaf. The paper comes to the conclusion that even though comprehensive policies for the eradication and substitution of the coca leaf have been established on paper, the results will be directly related to advances in human development and rural infrastructure policies, together with the commitment of the private sector and international markets, for the promotion of alternative legal products and activities.