P L A N* C O L O M B I A
BEFORE
PLAN COLOMBIA
Situation
in the U.S.
Situation in Colombia
Policy Before Plan Colombia
PLAN
COLOMBIA
Role
of the U.S.
Military Mission
Coca Eradication
RESULTS
OF PLAN COLOMBIA
Ecological
Devastation
Socio-Economic Devastation
Cultural Devastation
A
CRITICAL PERSPECTIVE
Plan
Colonia
Parallels: Colombia and Vietnam?
By.
Carmen Guhn-Knight
cmguhnkn@mtholyoke.edu
Updated 05.05.06.
With Thanks To Mount Holyoke College
and Thanks to the Beehive
Design Collective
for the Black and White Cartoons
Plan Colombia:
The
coca plant. Courtesy of www.presbypeacefellowship.org
Coca eradication is a major aspect of Plan Colombia. Initially, the Colombian government asked farmers to manually eradicate their coca crops. A proposed $68.5 million was supposed to be granted to farmers who agreed to destroy their coca as part of a ‘community pact’. In the Putumayo region in 2001, 37,000 families had signed the pact. A year later, only 8,500 of these families had received any money or services.[11]
Plan Colombia quickly turned to eradication by plane fumigation. Planes would fly 200 feet over farmer’s crops and spray herbicides (glyphosate-based chemicals like Roundup) to destroy coca. In 2004, more land was sprayed than ever before; 136,555 hectares.[1]
Was fumigation effective? No. Aerial fumigation has not made a dent in the coca production and has not caused cocaine prices to rise in the U.S. In 2004, the estimated area under coca cultivation rose to 114,000 hectares.[1]
Additionally, in some regions coca has been resisting Roundup and developing a new strain named supercoca. Supercoca grows taller than coca, has higher cocaine content, and is the only crop that can survive aerial Roundup spray.[1] Therefore, fumigation is actually increasing coca production by encouraging farmers to grow coca because other crops will not yield profit.