An assessment of Colombia’s anti-drug policies amid the peace talks with the FARC

For the past three years, the government of Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos has worked to broker a peace deal with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), and has also continued its decades-long battle against drug production, trafficking, and organized crime. To better assess both the government’s progress and its overall drug policy strategy, the Santos administration established a Drug Policy Advisory Commission in 2013. The Commission recently released its final report, “Guidelines for a New Approach to Colombian Drug Policy.” The report discusses the trends in Colombian cocaine production and their impacts on the illicit economy, the costs of the drug war, and the growing problem of domestic drug use.

On September 21, the Foreign Policy Latin America Initiative (LAI), in collaboration with Florida International University’s Kimberly Green Latin American and Caribbean Center (FIU-LACC), will host Drug Policy Advisory Commission President Daniel Mejía to outline the report’s findings and main recommendations. Brookings Senior Fellow Vanda Felbab-Brown and FIU-LACC Director Frank Mora will evaluate Colombia’s counter-narcotics and anti-organized crime strategies and their relation to the country’s ongoing peace talks. LAI Director and Senior Fellow Harold Trinkunas will provide introductory remarks and moderate.

After the program, panelists will take questions from the audience.

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