Colombia's economic isolation makes peace elusive, UN envoy says. By Reuters
Written by Oliver Griffin
BOGOTA (Reuters) – Colombia's peace efforts will not bear fruit while the Andean country is socially and economically divided compared to India, a United Nations envoy said.
The Colombian government divides households into six economic classes, with those living in wealthier areas paying more to subsidize people living in poorer communities.
The intentions of this program may be good, but the result is social isolation and deepening poverty, Olivier De Schutter, UN special secretary for extreme poverty and human rights, told Reuters in Bogota, as his latest report on Colombia was published. on Wednesday.
It is very easy for people to never mix with other groups and for wealthy Colombians to “completely ignore the problem of poverty in the country,” he added.
The result is that children in low-income families never develop the connections they need to reach their full potential and make them easy targets for recruitment by armed groups, De Schutter said.
“The only comparison that comes to mind is the caste system. Although this in Colombia has no religious origin, it is certainly enforced on society in a frightening way,” said De Schutter.
Colombia's presidential office did not have an immediate response to De Schutter's findings, a spokesman said.
According to the government statistics agency DANE, 33% of Colombia's estimated 50 million people were financially poor last year, and 11.4% were very poor. Both figures were slightly lower than last year.
Although left-wing President Gustavo Petro has made poverty reduction one of his main goals, increasing the minimum wage and pushing for pension reforms that ensure stability for poor retirees, social mobility has not improved, De Schutter said.
De Schutter's comments follow a ten-day trip to Colombia, where he visited four places including the city of Cali and Ciudad Bolivar, a poor area of Bogota, the capital.
