CPT Net
September 2, 2001
COLOMBIA: "The Coca Lives and the Yucca Rots"

"The planes come here to kill the coca plants, but look, the coca lives
and the yucca rots," said Pedro, describing the fumigations that are being
conducted under the U.S.'s Plan Colombia. CPTers Scott Kerr, Matt Schaaf,
Pierre Shantz, and director Gene Stoltzfus traveled several hours west of
CPT's home base in Barrancabermeja to visit communities in the Cimitarra
Valley, an area fumigated in the last three months. There the team saw
acres of wilting banana plants and rotting yucca in the same fields where
coca plants flourish.

The coca plants are resistant to the US-manufactured herbicide mixture used
in fumigations, a concentrated formulation of the popular herbicide
Roundup. "The campesinos' food is being destroyed, leaving them only coca
to sell," explained Manuel, a community leader. The fumigation also causes
rashes, and stomach and other ailments. The community is very concerned
about possible birth defects in future generations.

Stoltzfus has seen this before. "They did the same thing in Vietnam,
dropping Agent Orange on the jungle to kill the undergrowth, and it has
caused a lot of sickness and suffering there, too," he said.

  A Colombian visitor asked the team what they would do if the Colombian
government entered the United States and began dumping chemicals on the
farms in the Midwest.

In the Cimitarra Valley, the US and Colombian governments have targeted
small farmers with the fumigations. Alongside the planes carrying the
chemicals, helicopters often strafe the hillsides with gunfire, forcing the
community to flee in fear. People in Cimitarra believe that the US and
Colombian governments are using the effort to eradicate drugs as a pretext
to further militarize the area and drive out the rebels of FARC--Colombia's
largest guerilla group--and its supporters. They cite as evidence that
large coca plantations in the south of Colombia remain untouched by the
fumigators. That zone is under the control not of guerillas, but of
right-wing paramilitary groups.

CPT and local leaders met in the community building named after a community
organizer slain by the paramilitaries. The leaders asked CPT to continue
visiting the area to provide accompaniment to threatened communities, and
to work with them in public witnesses in Barrancabermeja. Though already
stretched to maintain a continuous presence in Ci