Publication

This publication examines how and why the 2016 peace agreement between the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) is faltering particularly in the country’s Pacific regions. Key insights include 1) that since the peace accord, these regions have seen surges of both dissident guerrilla activity and drug-related crime; 2) long one of Colombia’s poorest and most peripheral regions, the Pacific’s struggles highlight huge difficulties in improving security without addressing economic and political roots of armed group recruitment and the co-option of communities by organized crime; 3) to better aid this historically neglected area, the state should expand its presence, speed up development projects and improve educational opportunities for all, and more.