CPTnet  
8 September 2008
COLOMBIA: “We hope you will not abandon us.”

by Sally Ann Brickner

During a three-day stay in Micoahumado this summer, Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) members Sandra Rincón and I listened to local leaders and others express their concerns about an economic crisis in the region.  Local and global circumstances have created economic instability that has precipitated changes in the community.  Such changes evoke frustration and fear regarding the future.  

The Micoahumado economy is based on agriculture.  Most of the farmers possess small farms devoted to crops such as cocoa, fruits, sugar cane, beans, corn, coffee, and oil palm.  Coca provides for some farmers the greatest economic return, although planting and harvesting an illegal product involves greater risks.

During April 2008, the Colombian government conducted a manual coca eradication program in Micoahumado supervised by the military.  Contracted workers removed up to 90% of the coca and seized or destroyed production equipment.  When the program ended, the eradicators migrated to their next site and some of the families most affected by the loss of coca relocated to seek other employment opportunities.

While such actions might seem justified from a legal point of view, most people do not see these actions in the context of the farmers having few viable economic alternatives to coca.  The consequent loss of community members destabilizes social, economic, cultural, and political situations.  For example, departures affect the network of friendships; small businesses close for lack of customers; leaders must reassess whether they have the people to carry out beneficial programs for their communities.

Manual eradication does less damage to other crops and to the soil than aerial spraying does.  However, weather and economic globalization have also affected these small farmers and dealing with these issues is more difficult  than sending people in to destroy coca.

Ordinarily, summer is the dry season in Colombia, but heavy rains have continued in some areas, affecting all phases of agricultural production.  Farmers constantly deal with weather variations.  But when they face annual changes in rainfall and temperature that cause loss of crops, their families' livelihood for the year is lost.  Furthermore, many of them have neither savings on which to rely, nor credit to invest in additional seed and costly fertilizers.  

Larger landowners both in and outside of Colombia are able to obtain both credit for the costly seed, fertilizers, and equipment and government subsidies for their crops.  In Micoahumado, however, the Colombian government invests mainly in the military interventions rather than in developing an infrastructure that supports local agriculture.  

The peasant farmers are deeply connected to their land, and wish to continue growing their crops.  Several people told the visiting CPTers,  “Other groups are ending their work here; we hope you will not abandon us.”