An assessment of Colombia’s anti-drug policies amid the peace talks with the FARC
Past Event
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.
Agenda
Introduction and moderator
Harold Trinkunas
Former Brookings Expert
Interim Co-Director and Senior Research Scholar, Center for International Security and Cooperation - Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, Stanford University
Panelists
Daniel Mejía
Director of Policy and Strategy - Office of the Attorney General, Colombia
Vanda Felbab-Brown
Director - Initiative on Nonstate Armed Actors
Co-Director - Africa Security Initiative
Senior Fellow - Foreign Policy, Strobe Talbott Center for Security, Strategy, and Technology
Frank Mora
Director, Kimberly Green Latin American and Caribbean Center - Florida International University
Ana María Rueda
Advisor to the Director of Drug Policy - Colombian Ministry of Justice and Law
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