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 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?

 LINKS and WORKS CITED 

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

Before Plan Colombia:

• Situation in the United States
• Situation in Colombia
• Policy before Plan Colombia

Historically, the Colombian Armed Forces of the Colombian government have been illicitly allied with paramilitaries (autodefensas) such as the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC). The Colombian government has found these alliances to be useful counter-insurgency techniques.[19] The autodefensas have been in conflict with regional insurgencies, most notably the FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia). Both the autodefensas and the FARC are considered terrorists by international organizations. Conflicts between military groups in civilian areas have granted Colombia one of the world’s worst human rights records.

The autodefensas have massacred entire towns in their ambition to expel guerrilla insurgencies from disputed territories. Several paramilitary recruits interviewed by Human Rights Watch said that captives of the AUC were mutilated by chainsaws and tortured by having acid thrown in their faces.[17] Of all the autodefensas, the AUC is the only group that has established 18 as the minimum recruitment age. However, this rule is not enforced; two-thirds of the former AUC members interviewed by Human Rights Watch said they were younger than fifteen upon admittance.[17] The AUC’s main opposition group, the FARC, has a similar record of abuse. About 20-30% of the FARC’s fighters are children under eighteen.[16] Children are often coerced into joining by offers of food, protection, or money. In other instances, children will join under the persuasion of gunpoint.[16]

Like the AUC, the FARC has been accused of violence towards civilians. Their use of gas cylinder bombs is particularly controversial because this weapon is "impossible to aim with accuracy and, as a result, frequently strikes civilian objects."[18] The FARC often exploits civilians through taxes and kidnapping. Kidnap victims are usually returned through ransom, but there have been several cases of kidnapped civilians being murdered.[16] Taxes are demanded of local businesses, including coca farms. However, the FARC are not solely dependant on the coca trade; in some cases, the FARC will actually encourage peasants not to farm coca if an alternate crop will reap enough profit to sustain a family. Therefore, the relations between traffickers and the insurgent guerrillas were often quite tense. A CIA report states that the drug industry would not be suppressed by “attacks against guerrillas. Indeed, many traffickers would probably welcome, and even assist, increased operations against insurgents”.[11]

The FARC, despite its human rights abuses, has also been beneficial to some communities. In certain regions of Colombia, the FARC builds schools, roads, and other infrastructure and acts as an arbitrator between drug traffickers and peasant cultivators to ensure that farmers receive fair prices for their cocaine base.[11]