Global Markets, Local Conflict

Abstract

After the breakdown of the International Coffee Agreement, armed conflict intensified in the Colombian coffee region. The decline of international coffee prices after the agreement was abandoned increased local poverty and made it difficult for the National Coffee Federation to compensate for the state’s failure to provide economic stability and social services. Poverty and a weakened Federation in turn opened windows of opportunity for illegal armed actors, cultivators of illegal crops, and drug traffickers. The link between change in international coffee markets and local violence is shaped by domestic processes of resource extraction such as land distribution, joint crop techniques, the periodic employment of a temporary workforce, and the nature of institutional regulation. Study of this link exposes the vulnerability of underdeveloped economies to economic and political decision-making processes beyond national borders.