“Drugs hit the poor hardest – in Britain and Colombia” says John Battle MP

John Battle, Labour MP for Leeds West, visited Colombia last week.

He says, “I saw for myself that poor people in Colombia pay a very high price for the drugs trade. The poor are ruled by violence by drug gangs and paramilitaries who force the people to be drug growers and drug carriers – and kill those who disobey them. They may also be pushed off their land by drugs gangs if they refuse to grow drugs, and by the armed forces if they do. Drugs bring huge profits for some, but keep the poor at subsistence level.

“I heard from people who had lost friends and family members to drug gangs and to far-right paramilitaries and their guerrilla opponents. I heard about the huge numbers of local leaders – from local councillors to trade unionists – killed and intimidated. Often the only local leaders who dared to stay and stand up to the drug gangs are the priests. They too are regularly assassinated.

“The poor in Colombia pay with their lives for the drugs trade, in the same way as those in Leeds who get addicted to crack cocaine and other hard drugs pay with their lives. I’ve listened to mothers who have lost children to the drugs trade here in our city, and to mothers in Colombia whose children were killed by the other end of the drugs trade. It’s the poor at both ends who pay the highest price.

“I want to bring the victims of both ends of the drugs trade together to work to defeat it, and I look forward to talking to CAFOD and to our Government to see what more can be done – how can we bring people together to create an outcry that brings change.”

Mr Battle is Chair of the Parliamentary Friends of CAFOD, the Catholic international development charity, and visited Colombia with them last week.

©John Battle MP 14 March 2005

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Internet Links

• Leeds Drugs Action Team