Illicit economies and territorial peacebuilding in post-conflict colombia: cannabis crop substitution in an indigenous territory compared to the political economy of illegal mining

Resumo

Colombia's post-conflict transition unfolds within a landscape where multiple illicit economies, cannabis and coca cultivation, and illegal mining, continue to finance armed actors and to shape the possibilities of territorial peace. This article examines the conditions under which the transition from illicit to legal cannabis cultivation contributes to territorial peacebuilding, taking as its empirical anchor the indigenous community of El Credo, Resguardo de Huellas, municipality of Caloto, Cauca. It aims to analyze this transition through the theoretical lens of territorial peace and to compare its dynamics with the political economy of illegal mining, an economy that in Cauca frequently overlaps with illicit crops in the same territories. Methodologically, the study draws on a single case study of El Credo, combining documentary review with the community diagnostic evidence produced in the underlying thesis research (a DOFA institutional analysis and a Likert-type survey), articulated with a comparative documentary analysis of illegal mining literature in Colombia. The findings show that cannabis substitution and illegal mining, although both embedded in the same structural conditions of institutional absence and armed conflict, differ substantially in their compatibility with indigenous territorial governance and with a positive, rather than merely negative, conception of peace. It is concluded that territorial peacebuilding requires differentiated policy responses to distinct illicit economies, and that indigenous governance structures constitute a comparative advantage for cannabis transition processes that is largely absent in mining-affected territories.