Social Impact
From WolfWikis
Contents |
Social Goals of the Plan
Plan Columbia contains a social participation strategy aimed at collective awareness. To achieve collective awareness, the government attempted to develop more accountability in local government and to continue to place pressure on the guerillas and paramilitary groups. The plan involved local business and labor groups in an attempt to strengthen agricultural communities and reduce rural violence. Above all, the plan attempted to reinforce tolerance and the promotion of a peace co-existence. The plan also focused on providing adequate humanitarian assistance to the victims of armed conflict. For example:Insurance and compensation, physical and psychological rehabilitation, mechanisms to quantify and determine the eligibility of victims and specially targeted programs for the most vulnerable (children, women heads of households, the elderly and ethnic groups). The government will define a regulatory framework, establishing minimum standards of quality and institutional responsibility based on progressive benchmarks and monitoring indicators.[1]
The strategy also attempts to improve conditions for peasant farmers by “encouraging voluntary" abandonment of illicit crops. The government believes that in poppy-producing areas “it is generally feasible to substitute the illicit production of small farmers with one or more legal crops”. By ‘encourage’ the government means that in return for giving up illegal crops, the farmers will receive education, health services, improved infrastructure and personal security. However, the farmers cannot sustain a crop change when the coca-producing areas where they farm are far away from potential markets for legal crops. To combat this conflict the U.S. offered farmers the opportunity to relocate to land seized by the agrarian reform agency INCORA. The government also offered farmers the opportunity to move into urban areas to join the urban workforce. As well, the government planned to work with indigenous groups to launch “economically feasible” environmental protection program to conserve forest areas and also to provide employment for former coca farmers.
The Problems
Perhaps the most alarming aspect about the plan its’ inefficiency, what exactly happens to the $2.2 million each day? Farmland continues to leave the hands of the campesinos and into the hands of the wealthy, forcing the campesinos to relocate into Bogotá’s slums.[2]
Fumigation in Putumayo
Putumayo lies in the Southwest of Colombia on the border of Ecuador and Peru. The area remains one the largest coca producing in Colombia and the focus of much of Plan Colombia's eradication process. Putumayo is largely an indigenous area. In 2000, the government began a fumigation campaign to eradicate coca farms. Soon after, more and more people fell sick, were displaced and an overwhelming destruction of legal crops occurred. In 2007, the fumigations continue and manual eradication teams joined the attempted wipe out.[3] Although the manual eradicators receive praise in the Colombian government, the fumigations remain the dominant method of eradication and the campesinos still have no alternatives. As promised, Plan Columbia brought alternative development programs to Colombia, but they have all seemed to fail. Even if the campesinos begin to pursue alternative programs, the heavy presence of fumigation destroys the legal harvesting they pursue. [4] To combat the herbicides, some farmers in the region began to coat their crops with syrups to protect it from the fumigations, while other attempt to hide the coca or use a smaller area of farmland. [5]
The Fumigations often missed the small coca farms and hit larger farms with legal crops or other non-drug affiliated buildings. Numerous times, the planes fumigated near schools and caused children and teachers to experience nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and skin rashes. One teacher stated, “They’re not just fumigating the coca, they are also fumigating the people.” Another commented, “It’s an absurd fight, this war on drugs.”[6] Although this is an isolated example, much of the indifernous in the area suffer. In August 2007, The Kofan, an indigenous group that resides in the Putumayo went to the nearest city to receive treatment from the symptoms they incurred because of the fumigations. The children are the worst affected. After being treated the Kofan choose to stay in the city because their lands and crops were destroyed, including herbal medicines, by the fumigations and they can no longer risk their health.[7]
The defoliant used in fumigations is glyphosate, basically a stronger version of Roundup. The mixture was very successful at eradicating crops, however it also damage legal crops and caused sever polluting of the rivers and air in Ecuador. [8] While the spraying was shown to eradicate crops, it also has the unintended effect of killing native forest and damaging the health of the people. [9] With the continued decline in health, President Uribe called for a stop of aerial spraying and replaced it with manual eradication. While it costs less to perform, manual eradication raises risk because of the high population of paramilitary and rebel groups that lurk in the villages and jungles in Putumayo. The Bush administration did not receive President Uribe's decision well, because of the deep seated threats posed by the guerrilla and paramilitary forces. [10] But much of the damage has already been done.
Human Rights
Some critic believe that War of Drug was used as a ploy and the real initiative behind Plan Colombia was counterinsurgency. [11] Along with the millions of dollars given to the Colombian military each year, extensive training courses provide Colombians with skills to operate the large helicopter fleet they also received. And as the army grows, the human rights violations do as well. When the United States entered into Colombia, the FARC issued bounties for US military and for any Colombian that helped the US. [12] One particular way in which the FARC target the US military, and inadvertently civilians is antipersonnel landmines. The landmines kill many civilians and those that do live, often cannot support their families and retain severe mental distress. [13] For pictures and stories of those displaced and hurt by landmines, Click Here Another large problem inflicted by the FARC is kidnappings.
The increased fighting in rural areas led to a large number of IDP (Internally displaced peoples) in Colombia. Click Here to read some of their stories. ≈
Future
While the Colombian government and the US are continually reminded of the Human Rights violations and basic failures inflicted by Plan Colombia, the policy remains. Although large protest continues to poor in, the countries choose to ignore it, basically to find out whether the ends justify the means. It seems that the continued pressure by NGO will eventually crack the government and international support will wain. The optimal plan is to decrease the spending on military and increase the budget for social and political reform, because obviously the money spent on the military isn't working.
Links
Washington Office on Latin America
References
- ↑ http://www.usip.org/library/pa/colombia/adddoc/plan_colombia_101999.html#planD
- ↑ "Plan Colombia" Marc Cooper The Nation: March 19, 2001.
- ↑ "Seven Years of Plan Colombia … and Little Has Changed in Putumayo" Kyle Johnson. Columbia Journal Online 9/24/07
- ↑ Johnson
- ↑ 'Lessons From Colombia' Branford, Sue. New Statesman, 8/13/2007, Vol. 137 Issue 4855, p16-17
- ↑ Johnson
- ↑ Johnson
- ↑ "Defoliation and the War on Drugs in Putumayo, Colombia" Messina, J. P.; Delamater, P. L.. International Journal of Remote Sensing, 1/10/2006, Vol. 27 Issue 1/2, p121-128
- ↑ Messina 127
- ↑ Brandford 17
- ↑ Next steps in Colombia. Economist, 00130613, 2/12/2005, Vol. 374, Issue 8413
- ↑ http://www.hrw.org/wr2k1/americas/colombia3.html
- ↑ http://hrw.org/english/docs/2007/07/25/colomb16475.htm
- ↑ http://www.fidh.org/spip.php?article4760
- ↑ http://www.zmag.org/content/Colombia/weiss_paramilitaries.cfm