CPTnet
3 September 2005

COLOMBIA: "I am cold because I have no skin."

by Suzanna Collerd

"I am cold because I have no skin." Alfredo* told us on a ninety-degree
day, as I looked at the peeling skin all over his body, head and face.

Two and a half years ago, without warning, small planes arrived surrounded
by helicopters. The planes began to spread a foul-smelling white dust over
all of the land. Alfredo and his family watched as they worked in their
fields. The arrival of these planes and helicopters continued several times
a week for more than two months. Once the white dust fell, they no longer
saw any physical sign of the herbicide, apart from the effects. Fields of
yucca, plantain, corn all died. Family gardens of fruits and vegetables
dried up and perished. Slowly, the fish in the lake began to die. Then,
after a month, Alfredo's skin began to blister; the blisters popped and
left his skin dry and flaking.

The planes and helicopters that flew over Alfredo's land are products of the
United States funding of Plan Colombia, a part of which involves the
Colombian army spraying herbicides over areas where coca grows. Thus, the
money for the fumigations comes from the country with the largest market for
cocaine. The high price that cocaine users are willing to pay in the United
States makes the cultivation of coca crops a lucrative option for farmers.

Unfortunately, the herbicides kill all other plants, contaminate water and
land, and affect animals without getting at the root of the cocaine problem:
the high demand drug market.

Non-governmental organizations have helped Alfredo receive treatments for
his skin. Nonetheless, sun exposure causes relapse and, unfortunately,
farmers are exposed to a lot of sun.

"At this point, I can only wait for death, I have no other options," he said
to me. Alfredo's 48 year-old body can no longer move comfortably. Even if
he could work, his land will no longer support the cultivation of crops and
the fish are gone from the nearby lake.

"I don't worry about myself as much as my family," he said. I looked at
two of his daughters and four of his grandchildren as he told me he no
longer has a peso to his name. Alfredo has gone to various state agencies
that help people displaced by the conflict, but they will not recognize his
displacement or his illnesses as effects of the war because the fumigations
are a Colombian government policy.

In the last two weeks the fumigations started anew in the area where his
family lives. I asked myself, and Alfredo, why people cultivate coca. He
told me: one acre of coca will earn about two million pesos (more or less
one thousand dollars) while the traditional crops of yucca, plantain, and
corn are sold at a loss because of the high transportation cost. "We don't
cultivate coca because we want to, but because we need to eat."

*Name has been changed.