Before setting up his plantation, José Gregorio Rojas, 69, worked for eight years as a “chemist” in the production of coca paste, an extract of the coca leaf that can be processed into street cocaine. His life was supposed to change for the better when he stopped growing coca plants and joined the National Illicit Crop Substitution Programme (PNIS), a Colombian government initiative started in 2017. However, not everything went according to plan.
“I was very close to going back to growing coca leaves because I couldn’t find a way to make money. What is the use of a piece of land if I can’t produce?” says Rojas, sitting at the dining table in the house he built overlooking the mountains where the Amazon region begins. “If the government had complied [with the agreement], I would be well organised by now. Everything they gave me, I invested here. But it’s not enough.”
