Particle.news
Download on the App Store
6 ARTICLES
·
last mo.

Colombia’s Coca Expansion Fuels Rise in Child Recruitment by Armed Factions

UN officials fault the government’s uneven presence with Indigenous communities taking the lead on patrols and rescue missions.

Image
Image
The source of the souring of U.S.-Colombia political relations: a coca plant in Bolívar, Colombia. The Colombian government recently sought to combine eradication with alternative rural development to break the cycle of coca growing. The U.S. under Trump wants a return to the drug war, including aerial spraying, which Colombia has banned for health and safety reasons. Photo by Enn1.jpg: Dbotany /  Ilmari Karonen licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

Overview

  • Indigenous councils in Cauca report over 900 cases of child recruitment since 2016 and link a recent surge to expanding coca cultivation.
  • FARC dissidents, the ELN and the Clan del Golfo systematically recruit children in remote communities to sustain their drug-trade operations.
  • The Nasa Indigenous Guard has intensified school patrols and rescue missions in mountainous areas to recover children taken by armed groups.
  • United Nations human rights chief Scott Campbell condemns the government’s uneven presence and delays in partnering with Indigenous authorities.
  • ICBF-funded initiatives helped 251 children leave armed groups in the first half of 2025 even as some recruits say they joined voluntarily to escape family issues.