CPTnet
October 1, 2001
COLOMBIA: Plan Colombia's "War on Farmers"

by Matt Schaaf

"The eradication of coca in our community is actually the eradication of
the small farmer," said Faicson Rodriguez, a farmer in the Cimitarra
Valley, about two hours downriver from Barranca.

Under the pretext of nipping cocaine production in the bud, Plan Colombia's
"War on Drugs" mandates the spraying of high concentrations of the
herbicide RoundUp Ultra. Roundup kills not only coca crops, but food
harvests and next year's seed, contaminating the waters and causing illness
and death in human beings and their livestock, chickens, dogs, and
workhorses.

Recently CPTers Scott Kerr and Matt Schaaf witnessed the effects of
fumigation in the Cimitarra Valley as part of a two day investigation by the
Human Rights Commission, made up of Colombian and international NGOs.

Plan Colombia Fumigations

Many poor families in this region grow small plots of coca among their food
crops. Coca has become the only means of economic survival available to
these people, though most would rather not grow the plant. In 1998, after a
march and sit-in at the local municipal government offices, the farmers won
an agreement with the government to stop the fumigations and eradicate the
coca by hand, replacing it with corn. The President of Colombia attended
the signing of this "social inversion" plan.

However, the current administration has betrayed the farmers. In August,
fumigations again withered subsistence food crops. One community member
hauled a blackened bunch of plaintain before the commission and angrily
spoke up, "This was NOT the agreement!" The gathered crowd loudly agreed.
"What do the executives in Bogot