TIBU,
Waiting under a tin-roofed shack is a small group of coca farmers. They’ve never heard of multi-billionaire investor
“There’s a saying here: The less you know, the better," said
For nearly two decades Buffett has crisscrossed the world giving away part of his father’s fortune to promote food security, conflict mitigation and public safety. But his latest gamble is one of the most daunting yet: helping
He is focusing on Tibu, heart of the remote, notoriously lawless Catatumbo region bordering
Tibu has the second largest coca crop in all of
The first component is building 300 kilometers (185 miles) of roads to connect the municipality’s 37,000 residents for the first time with national and international markets. It’s a challenge made more difficult by lurking guerrillas who last year detonated a homemade bomb as army engineers were working on the road, killing five people and injuring several.
“The only way we have confidence that farmers can grow legal crops is if they can get those crops to market,” Buffett told farmers during a visit last month with Duque to La Gabarra, a rural outpost in Tibu. It was the first time any Colombian president had visited the blood-soaked hamlet.
The plan envisions subsidies and training for farmers as they switch crops, as well as helping them find buyers. It also aims to strengthen infrastructure for local law enforcement.
But some experts worry Buffett's enthusiasm for speeding
A lot is riding on Buffett’s investment.
Not since the start of the
“There’s no precedent for something on such large a scale,” Balcázar said. “But the region is strategic for consolidating peace in Colombia.”
Like his father, Buffett, 65, has a reputation for folksy, Midwestern plain speech and self-effacing humor. Although he's a three-time college dropout, his father wants him to succeed him as the non-executive chairman of
But he’s spent much of his adult life roving the world taking wildlife photos and writing books. He’s also a corn farmer and made headlines in 2017 by briefly serving as the sheriff of
He began exploring the world as a teenager on a trip to Soviet-controlled
As a philanthropist, his priority now is helping
As a volunteer police officer who logged 678 hours on patrol last year, Buffett has seen firsthand the human toll caused by drug addiction. A few weeks before traveling to
“These are people who need our help,” he said. “They’re not criminals.”
He has turned to
Buffett began working in
While an enthusiastic supporter of the 2016 peace deal, he has nonetheless struck a close relationship with Duque, a law-and-order conservative who rode into office attacking the agreement.
Duque has vowed to slash cocaine production in half by the end of 2023. Production of the drug skyrocketed after his predecessor — Nobel Peace Prize laureate
That’s where Buffett steps in.
The
Beyond the big check, long-time partners praise the
“We’re accountable mainly to the IRS,” jokes Buffett, who sees setbacks like a venture capitalist who must eat crow before finding wild success.
“If you’re a charity, and you’re going to have your annual banquet to raise a lot of money, you can’t stand up there and tell people how you had these five failures and this one success. People aren’t going to write checks,” he said. “We’ll make a decision in five minutes if we know what we want to do.”
He is skeptical of the
“The reason is because we can’t depend on them,” said Buffett, who said he was burned badly by
“The bullets started flying and they pulled out. But it's like, you're in
Instead, the foundation relies on partners known for delivering results quickly with slim overhead — a combination he says is hard to find among the “beltway bandits” profiting from
In a nod to his father’s reputation for common sense, Buffett seeks frequent counsel from the so-called “Oracle of Omaha.”
“He’s my sounding board, kind of like my conscience in a way,” Buffett said. “But he never asks, ‘Why are you doing that?’ or ‘Why you’re taking that risk?'”
In Tibu, after cracking a few jokes and planting a cacao tree, he seemed beside himself with joy even as the presidential committee hustled to quickly depart as heavy fog threatened to maroon them in the middle of nowhere.
“I know Emilio is very worried about leaving,” Buffett told the farmers through a translator, referring to Duque’s post-conflict adviser,
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