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
Results of Plan Colombia:
Plan Colombia has changed the traditional methods of farming for peasant families. Crops are now genetically engineered and grown in strict rows to maximize profit. Small plants that were once used for medicinal purposes are now weeds. Coca production, though extensive, is shunned. The coca plant is now only considered preliminary cocaine despite the traditional importance of coca in Andean life.
“Mamma
Coca” is traditionally chewed all over the Andes
as a mild stimulant and as sustenance for working under harsh conditions.[3] Coca
leaves have been used to brew a tea ('matte de coca')
that cures altitude sickness, a common ailment in the Andes. The coca
plant has important medicinal and religious value in the Andes; “cocaine,
however, is a highly chemical and toxic by-product of the coca leaves
that has nothing to do with Andean traditions but rather with the sociological
and psychological imbalance of today's modern urban societies.”[13]
Making
cocaine versus "Mamma Coca". Beehive Design Collective.