Additional Context: This quote was collected as part of The Aid Report's original reporting found in the Devex featured article "USAID moves out, gangs move in: The cost of aid cuts in Colombia." Our journalist traced the unraveling of years of prevention work in Colombia to better understand how gangs and armed groups were quick to exploit the vacuum left behind when this work was cancelled.

This quote is attributed to Ramiro Rodríguez Padilla, who was formerly a legal adviser and organizer at both the Chocó Solidarity Inter-ethnic Forum, or FISCH, and the Greater Community Council of the Integral Peasant Association of the Middle Atrato, or COCOMACIA. Both of these organizations used to receive funding from USAID.

He explained to The Aid Report that the U.S. aid agency helped strengthen ethnic bodies’ organizational structures and supported a host of programs designed to foster legal economies and build resilience against armed groups. These included agricultural initiatives to encourage farmers to grow crops such as cocoa, rice, and corn rather than becoming involved in illicit economies like coca — the raw material for cocaine — cultivation or gold mining.

Source: Devex