Peru closes border with Colombian drug cartels

This is a rather unusual bout of fever between the two South American neighbors. Peru has declared a 60-day state of emergency at its border with Colombia due to the presence of gangs of drug traffickers and dissidents from the former guerrilla group of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). The situation is obviously serious. "We will defend our sovereignty and our territory, we will use the power of the force to do it" warned the Peruvian President Martín Vizcarra

Zone disputed traffic

The zone concerned is the Amazonian province of Putumayo, where is the eponymous river that divides the territories of Peru and Colombia. Colombian drug traffickers are fighting over the part where cocaine is trafficked to the United States or Europe. Even if the decision of the state of emergency is announced by the Peruvians, neighboring Colombia has been consulted and shares this decision. "Cooperation with Peru could not be better, we have permanent dialogues between the authorities of both countries" The Colombian Defense Minister Luis Carlos Villegas

Olivier shares his opinion Dabène, professor at Sciences Po: "T
raditionally, everything goes pretty well between Peru and Colombia" . But for several years now, Peru has got into the wheel of Colombia and has developed its own coca sector. Until recently, the raw material came from Bolivia and Peru and was turned into cocaine in Colombia before leaving for the United States, mainly via Venezuela and Mexico.

This scheme was turned upside down, Peru transforming the raw material more and more while the surfaces planted in Colombia exploded literally while the peace accords with the guerrillas had imposed a drastic reduction. Bogota remains the world's largest cocaine producer, with a record area of ​​209,000 hectares cultivated (+ 11%), according to the US administration, and a pure cocaine production capacity up 19% to 921 tonnes, another record, according to the National Office for Drug Control (ONDCP).

Threat

President Vizcarra said Peru, like Ecuador, was "threatened" by dissident groups of the former FARC guerrilla criminal organizations related to drug trafficking "This situation is not directly related to the political change in Colombia", continues Olivier Dabène also president of Opalc (Observatory of the Latin American countries and the Caribbean) Sciences po. Indeed, Ivan Duque was elected in June to the presidency of Colombia on a program much less favorable to the peace agreements of 2016. This new political situation does not play on very old trades which are likely to recover . Many dissident or paramilitary groups refuse any return to "civilian" life, such as converting land to more traditional crops, while drug cartels are gaining strength.

Michel De Grandi