CPTnet
8 July 2009
COLOMBIA REFLECTION: Colombia's violence not just about coca and guerrillas

by Justin Remer-Thamert

“Political violence and social unrest in Colombia, though commonly understood by the international community as rooted in the war on drugs and against guerrilla groups, stem from economic and political imperialism.”  The CPT May delegation, which spent two weeks meeting with individuals and organizations in various communities within the Magdalena Medio region, repeatedly heard variations of this message.

President Alvaro Uribe and other political-economic elites proclaim Plan Colombia as the answer to the problem of illicit drug production and violence.  However, despite years of massive aerial fumigations that have poisoned up to twenty hectares (fifty acres) of legitimate crops for each hectare of coca, overall coca production in Colombia has actually increased since 2000.  This coca feeds addictions and drug-related crime throughout the world; only 1% of the profits from this $600 billion global market stays within Colombia.  

Uribe´s government augmented military expenditures to 1200% of the 1990 level ($340M in 1990 to $8B in 2009).  The unfortunate combination of fumigations and militarization causes massive displacement.  Campesinos (small farmers)—either unable to grow crops on poisoned land with contaminated water sources, or offered pitiful compensation by large landholders who force campesinos off their land with the help of paramilitaries—find themselves living in the city under subhuman conditions.

The disparity of wealth in Colombia is among the highest in the world.  Two thousand three hundred landholders own 53% of the land, whereas 3,200,000 campesinos own 8% and another two million campesinos are landless workers.  Millions of people have been expelled from land now owned by large landholders.  These individuals then put a few cattle on the land to protect it from the law that says that Colombian citizens may occupy unused land.

Transnational companies are another demonstration of imperialism in Colombia.  Magdalena Medio, formerly the “breadbasket of Colombia,” has become the Petroleum Capital of the country.  Land has shifted from food production to use for oil, coal, gold, and timber extraction as well as the more recent oil palm production for biofuel.  Further threatening Colombia’s food sovereignty is the U.S.-Colombia free trade agreement, under which the U.S. dumps cheaper government-subsidized agricultural products into Colombian markets, undercutting fair prices for local goods.

Because large landholders, narco-traffickers, and transnational companies require land, militarized social control continues marginalizing campesinos and indigenous people in Colombia.  People who defend the human rights of the marginalized and oppose unjust economic policies continue to receive death threats.  Colombia´s violence is much more nuanced than a struggle against coca or guerrilla groups, and Plan Colombia will not fix it.

The 26 May—8 June 2009 CPT Colombia delegation consisted of Julie Myers, of Cleveland, OH; Justin Remer-Thamert, of Albuquerque, NM; Ryan Shiffer, of Chicago, IL; Elena Wake, of South Bend, IN; and Paul Neufeld Weaver, of Bluffton, OH.