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 targets peasant farmers for growing coca even when no economic alternative exists. The aerial fumigation is ruining many families’ sources of income and food crops. Families have lost everything and are dying of hunger. U.S. officials were “astoundingly insensitive,” when they “belatedly acknowledged that farm crops may have been damaged along with coca plants, but argued that the farmers had no one to blame but themselves."[2]
The militarization of certain regions and the ruined soil that is inadequate for farming have internally displaced millions of families. Autodefensas have worked in conjunction with the U.S. military, “killing and terrorizing in the coca fields so that U.S. planes can then spray at low levels with impunity.”[9] In the 1990’s and early 2000’s, paramilitary activity was the primary force driving people from their homes. Today, “victims are fleeing from the aerial crop spraying, which kills coca, legitimate crops, and fish in fish farms; it also sickens peasants and their livestock.”[9]
Hunger is not the only health problem caused by fumigation; the chemicals cause fevers, severe skin and eye irritation, and gastrointestinal problems. One research project performed ‘comet tests’ to see if fumigation resulted in chromosome alteration (genetic damage). The results were startling; over a third of the cells of those in fumigated areas had been damaged. One woman found that over 85% of her cells had been damaged.[1]
“It went all over the food crops and the pasture. We lost everything. And the poison went on us too. I had no coat on, so it went all over my arms. It was like cooking oil. Sticky, just like oil. I washed it off as soon as I could, but even so it made my skin itch. For several days we all felt ill. We had fevers and eye infections. My youngest child hasn't been well since.”[1]
"We know this drug is harmful, but for us it means survival. The government isn't helping us. What else can we do? We'll have to keep planting until there's a real alternative."[12]
Dead
peasant 'ants' are being collected by a military 'dung beetle'. Beehive
Design Collective.