Sanchez on las FARC

Marcela Sanchez weighs in on Colombia in the aftermath of Operación Jaque:

Now is the time for Colombia and its partner, the U.S., to reconsider the present anti-drug strategy. Continuing to spend millions of dollars in pushing impoverished coca farmers around to no avail seems foolish when the money could be much better spent in further strengthening the state. Promoting rural development, helping relocate the millions of people displaced by decades of violence, and shoring up Colombians' respect for the law are more realistic and worthwhile causes.

Here's one idea: why doesn't Colombia pay its farmers to not plant coca, kind of like we pay American farmers to leave their fields untilled? There's a million different reasons why this won't work (too expensive, the coca will just be planted in Peru and Bolivia, there's something unsavory about bribing people not to break the law), but if we we're going to continue with prohibition, then we need to see more creative suggestions. And as Sanchez says, given the upcoming reorganization in Colombian trafficking owing to a weaker FARC, time's a-wastin'.