Warren Buffett's son helps Colombia kick cocaine curse.
In this Jan. 29, 2020 photo, Howard Buffett plants cocoa plant at a farm in La Gabarra, Colombia. Buffett began working in Colombia in 2008, helping pop star Shakira set up schools in her hometown of Barranquilla. He's also funded an army unit removing thousands of landmines strewn across former conflict zones.
For nearly two decades Buffett has crisscrossed the world giving away part of his father’s fortune to promotesecurity, conflict mitigation and public safety. But his latest gamble is one of the most daunting yet: helping Colombia kick its cocaine curse. The first component is building 300 kilometers of roads to connect the municipality’s 37,000 residents for the first time with national and international markets. It’s a challenge made more difficult by lurking guerrillas who last year detonated a homemade bomb as army engineers were working on the road, killing five people and injuring several.
“There’s no precedent for something on such large a scale,” Balcázar said. “But the region is strategic for consolidating peace in Colombia.” As a philanthropist, his priority now is helping Colombia and El Salvador, whose fight against drug trafficking has a direct impact on the U.S. Between the two countries he has already spent or committed $310 million, including the funding in El Salvador of a new police forensics center and a modern system to help the country's prosecutors track criminal investigations.
Duque has vowed to slash cocaine production in half by the end of 2023. Production of the drug skyrocketed after his predecessor — Nobel Peace Prize laureate Juan Manuel Santos — halted aerial eradication in 2015 due to health concerns over the herbicides used. But reaching that goal requires huge resources the government doesn’t have, as well as overcoming the indifference of urban voters who are removed from the conflict and have their own growing list of demands.
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