Colombia truth commission urges drug policy change to end violence
By Luis Jaime Acosta and Oliver Griffin
BOGOTA (Reuters) – Colombian leaders should acknowledge how drug trafficking has penetrated the nation’s tradition, financial system and politics and the way the worldwide battle on medication is driving its inside armed battle, Colombia’s fact fee stated on Tuesday in a long-awaited report.
The fee, established as a part of a 2016 peace deal between the federal government and the now-demobilized Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) rebels, urged the nation to reassess the function of medicine in its virtually 60-year inside battle.
Among the many fee’s suggestions are calls to implement substantial modifications in drug coverage with a deal with regulation, in addition to to guide a world dialog addressing coverage modifications.
Different suggestions included advancing peace talks with the Nationwide Liberation Military (ELN), tackling corruption and guaranteeing high quality of life and dignity for all communities.
President-elect Gustavo Petro attended the presentation and pledged to hold out the suggestions.
“These suggestions will turn into profitable within the historical past of Colombia,” stated Petro, a former member of the M-19 rebels, including cycles of vengeance should finish.
From 1985 to 2018, 450,664 individuals had been killed within the battle, in accordance with the reality fee, whereas 55,770 had been kidnapped between 1990 and 2018.
Greater than 7.7 million individuals had been displaced from 1985 to 2019 and 121,768 had been disappeared between 1985 and 2016, it added.
Regardless of the peace deal, which ended FARC’s function within the battle, combating continues in some elements of Colombia between leftist rebels from the ELN and FARC fighters who reject the accord, in addition to crime gangs and the army.
The fee was given three years to research the reality of what occurred throughout the armed battle and supply a broad rationalization of how atrocities occurred.
The greater than 1,000-page report included hours of testimony at non-public and public hearings, the place perpetrators and victims alike spoke in usually emotional recountings.
Drug trafficking and the battle on medication contributed to the degradation and extension of the battle into one in all whole battle, the report stated.
Colombia, a significant cocaine exporter, joined the battle on medication within the Eighties underneath strain from the USA and continues to face fixed U.S. strain to eradicate coca, cocaine’s chief ingredient, and deal with trafficking, the report stated.
Present President Ivan Duque, whose time period formally ends in August, didn’t attend.
(Reporting by Luis Jaime Acosta and Oliver Griffin; Modifying by Josie Kao)
