{"id":653,"date":"2017-03-20T17:53:56","date_gmt":"2017-03-20T17:53:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/?p=653"},"modified":"2017-03-20T17:53:56","modified_gmt":"2017-03-20T17:53:56","slug":"analysis-post-colombias-coca-production-soars-to-highest-level-in-two-decades-us-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/2017\/03\/20\/analysis-post-colombias-coca-production-soars-to-highest-level-in-two-decades-us-says\/","title":{"rendered":"Analysis Post: Colombia&#8217;s coca production soars to highest level in two decades, US says"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Plan Colombia has clearly failed at one of its core goals\u2014reducing the growth and distribution of illicit drugs in Colombia. Roughly 90% of cocaine sold in the United States still comes from Colombia.<\/span><!--more--><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> It has failed because the U.S. has not provided coca farmers with a viable alternative to growing coca. This is illustrated by the Miami Heralds\u2019s article stating that one man now \u201csells about 50 pounds of tilapia and mojarra at his storefront. At the end of the month, he has about 800,000 pesos in profits ($250 dollars) \u2014 about a tenth of what he made in the drug trade.\u201d In addition, the article states \u201cAlternative development projects pushed into the vacuum often weren\u2019t feasible. Locals complained about receiving cattle and chicken breeds that couldn\u2019t survive in the local conditions. Grand plans to plant vanilla, cardamom and other exotic export crops failed.\u201d Fortunately, plans are in place to create a new deal called Peace Colombia, which has over $450 million in its budget. It is unclear how much would be allocated for alternative development programs. Plan Colombia\u2019s budget for those programs was $75 million, and that number must go up significantly if the U.S. hopes to enact permanent change in Colombia. The $10 billion invested through Plan Colombia so far has dramatically improved security and stability in Colombia. Without U.S. intervention, Colombia may have become a failed state. \u00a0However, the U.S. must address the root cause of violence\u2014coca\u2014if they hope to reform and purify the Colombian economy. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Plan Colombia has clearly failed at one of its core goals\u2014reducing the growth and distribution of illicit drugs in Colombia. Roughly 90% of cocaine sold in the United States still comes from Colombia.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-653","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-analysis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=653"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":654,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653\/revisions\/654"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=653"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=653"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=653"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}