:03:09:
Delio Anacona (Cocagrower)
Father of three and a half months old Yessica Lorena, killed by fumigation, Nov. 21st 1999
When the small planes came they fumigated the house, everything. Short afterwards, because of the fumigation, my little daughter died. The poison came all over her and then she started to vomit.... and died.
:03:28:
Fabián Ramírez
Guerrila Commander
If on of those planes would pass by right now, we would let them have it, a complete hail of lead.
:03:41:
Alfredo Bocanegra (Cocagrower)
Father of 17 month old Bianei Garzón Zuniga, killed by fumigation january 14th 2000).
Two planes came and they fumigated, somewhere around 10 o'clock in the morning. Everything was afected and my little girl got poisoned...... and I found her dead. She was just 17 months old.
:04:02:
A considerable part of the coca-crops are located in territory dominated by the guerrilla movement. Earlier attempts by the colombian anti-narcotics police-force to eradicate cocacrops ended in violent confrontation with the better armed guerrilla. The government's only alternative was to fumigate from the air. Even so, the inevitability is, the drugwar has a direct interface with the counter insurgency war, the epicentre of which is also in the south of Colombia.
:04:35:
The small town of Vicente del Caguán is the gateway to the south of Colombia. To get there, one has to pass through a rigid checkpoint of the Colombian army. Soldiers check everyone who is travelling to this town. Because San Vicente del Caguán, for over a year, has been formally under the rule of th Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, the FARC, the world's longest running guerrilla movement.
Víctor G. Ricardo
Peace-negotiator Colombian Government
We created a de-militarized zone, by order of the national government, where the military and the police are not allowed to enter..... where we can talk.
:05:17:
With no military and no police, the only force authorized to carry arms and
officialy govern...... is the guerrilla. The locals, mostly merchants and peasants, have become used to the presence of the revolutionary army in the streets of San Vicente. Beyond the town a negotiationcenter was established... where peace talks are held.
Víctor G. Ricardo
Peace-negotiator Colombian Government
There has been more progress than in the last forty years. But it must be said clearly. Peace cannot be found around the corner. Peace cannot be declared by law, nor is it the result of just two meetings. Peace needs to be constructed.
:06:03:
Commander Raúl Reyes
Negotiator FARC
-That's why the peace-process is important, but we're still at the very beginning. We insist with all our energy that we should be allowed, as colombians, to resolve our internal problems without outside interference, without any pressure from abroad.
Deep in the colombian jungle, the civil war and the war-on-drugs appear to confluence.
:06:28:
Gerardo Moreno
Cocagrower
-We became aware that the sky was invaded by helicopters and the fumigation airplanes. As it is known that this is a guerrilla-area, the Caguan-region is called a red zone.As far we could see, the pilots of the planes seemed to be Americans, they did not appear to be Colombians.
:06:53:
Ricardo Vargas
Investigator
-In Colombia there's not a single liter of gliphosato spread from the air without an american order. That means that Colombia lacks all autonomy over decisions about fumigation.
Ricardo Vargas has published several books about the effects of the
fumigation policy imposed by the United States.
:07:20:
Ricardo Vargas
Investigator
The fumigation is obviously related to the policy to reduce the availability of coca. That means, it follows the principle that the problem should be stopped in its origin. That policy is an absolute failure.
In Colombia has been fumigated more than any other country. Specially in the period from ‘94 till ‘99. And exactly in that same period ocurred the main growth of the number of hectares with cocacrops.
:08:11:
The drugwar in the south of Colombia primarily affects the peasants. Over time, the region where the coca leaf is grown has been more or less abandoned by the state. There are no roads .... riverways offer the only access. Not only food, but every basic has to be shipped in....... which makes the cost of living 2 or 3 times higher than elsewhere in the country. Thus, as a result of costly river-bourne transport, regular agriculture production is simply not cost-effective. For this region's peasants, the only alternative is the coca-leaf.
08:50:
Most of the south of Colombia, where there is no State presence, is ruled by guerrilla forces. Fabián Ramírez is Commander of the FARC's 14th front, which covers the complete coca-region. He says the guerrilla does not protect the cocafields, but protects the peasants who are not to blaim for the drugproblem.
09:16:
Fabián Ramírez
Commander 14th Front FARC
-Because the peasants do not have an army. They are unarmed. If they want to use force to fight the drugs, they should use it in Bogotá, Cali, Medellin or Barranquilla because there's where the drug-traffickers are and where they have their armies.
09:34:
For the decision-makers in the United States, the FARC's dominion of the coca-region is sufficient proof they are narco-guerrilla. The FARC does have a close relationship with the cocagrowers. The guerrilla does not prohibit peasants from processing coca in small rustic laboratories. Every coca hectare produces close on one kilo of basic coca-paste. This is sold to buyers from the drug cartels. To get the basic coca-paste out of the region, buyers are required to pay ten percent of its value to the guerrilla. However, the colombian government agrees that the FARC does not produce nor participate in the transport or comercialisation of cocaine and therefore, are not a narco-guerrilla.
:10:31:
Víctor G. Ricardo
Peace-negotiator Colombian Government
If they were a narco-guerrilla, we wouldn't be talking with them. They are not a drug cartel, they are not drug traffickers. The day they become so, we would stop the dialogue immediately.
:10:46:
However, the Unites States does believe the FARC has become the new drug cartel, the follow-up to the dismantled cartels of Medellin and Cali. Washington is convinced the war-on-drugs cannot be seperated from counter-insurgency.
Ricardo Vargas
Investigator
If the perception persists that the guerrilla is the new drug cartel, just substitutes of the former cartels of Cali and Medellin, those who really benefit from that are drugslords.
:11:13:
Colombia's president, Andrés Pastrana, requested US president Bill Clinton's help to finance a plan which would eradicate coca cropping: the Plan Colombia.
Clinton's proposal was a fund of 1.7 billion dollars for military assistence: the creation of several specialised battalions, military bases from which the drug war would be coordinated and providing several dozens of helicopters, equipped with latest technology. Professor Luis Alberto Restrepo of the Institute of Political Studies in Bogotá, doubts the Clinton's aid-package could work efficiently.
:11:51:
Luis Alberto Restrepo
Institute Political Studies in Bogotá
-Where this policy will lead to is to strengthen the social base of the FARC. The peasants who suffer repression by the government will see the FARC as their defence. In that sense the Plan Colombia is the most illogical, and counter-productive, you can imagine.
:12:18:
Gerardo Moreno tried to substitute his coca-crop with other products. With
help from the rural parish, he changed the crop for rubbertrees. Fumigation destroyed everything.
:12:25:
Gerardo Moreno
Cocagrower
-From here we could almost see their faces.... how is it possible they did not see it were rubber-trees. And not just 3 or 4 trees, no..... there were 15 hectares of rubber. Now it's all poisoned, the soil has been deteriorated. It has lost its fertility, the upper coat of the ground has been destroyed.
Following each fumigation, peasants search out new areas in the jungle. For every fumigated hectare, 3 hectares of tropical rain-forest are destroyed. Whilst the fumigation programme did not reduce the quantity of the coca-crop. Whilst in consecuence, thousands of square-kilometres of the Amazone burned away.
:13:16:
Ricardo Vargas
Investigator
I feel the anti-drug policy will end up entirely mixed up with the internal armed conflict and will become the main factor of further destabilization.
Commander Raúl Reyes
Negotiator FARC
-We as the FARC have a lot of information about what the CIA, the DEA and the Pentagon are organizing against Colombia. They are seeking a direct intervention in the internal affairs of Colombia. We are aware that the Plan Colombia which was recently aproved by the US Congress has above all a military content.
:13:56:
Víctor G. Ricardo
Peace-negotiator Colombian Government
-That's what the Plan Colombia is meant to be for, to change that policy. The Plan Colombia is exactly meant to be an invitation to the international community to help Colombia to solve the drugproblem, the way we helped the world.
:14:09:
The Colombian government insist the military aid offered by President Clinton is just one part of the Plan Colombia, which also seeks considerable European support for social development. Yet there is no guarantee that this aid can be obtained. There are differing opinions between the Colombian government and the FARC regarding Plan Colombia. Nevertheless, they continue negotiations.
:14:34:
Víctor G. Ricardo
Peace-negotiator Colombian Government
-I believe they have the will to reach peace. But not just peace, but a peace that will lead to fundamental reforms that are needed in the political, social and economic area.
Ricardo Vargas
Investigator
The United States do no believe that the guerrilla wants peace.... they don't believe that that is a way the problem can be resolved. That's why, of Clinton's 1.7 billion dollar aid-package for Colombia, 82 per cent is military aid.
:15:10:
In the south the FARC is consolidating power. The guerrilla already controls the extensive Caguan area. Nobody enters or leaves this region without passing the guerrilla's strict checkpoints. The guerrilla wants to ensure enemies do not enter the zone and dispute power. In the riverside villages only the guerrilla is visible. The local population, they don't know any other authority.
Fabián Ramírez
Commander 14th Front FARC
People here do consult the guerrilla for all kind of problems, asking for advise. That makes us think that we are the real power here, and we have to deal with that power.
:16:04::
In the coca-growing region, the FARC seeks to end the total dependence of coca. The peasants depend on the buyers of coca paste. When they do not appear, there is no alternative than exchanging coca-paste for food. Sometimes there is no cash-money in circulation for months, so the coca-paste becomes the local currency.
:16:26:
Fabián Ramírez
Commander 14th Front FARC
Our purpose is to explain the population that they have to grow food. We have told them many times: Stop growing coca. Destroy those crops. And they respond us: Well and you guys from the FARC, are you going to sustain us then?
16:44:
The guerrilla fears the US military aid package will intensify civil war. In local meetings, the guerrilla tries to convince the cocafarmers to grow foodcrops, in addition to coca-leaf, as a safeguard. Peasants fear if they do that, they could lose their crops to future fumigation.
:17:13:
Gerardo Moreno
Cocagrower
-The fumigation didn't just destroy the alternative crops, it also destroyed the intention and the moral of the peasants to go forward to substitute illegal crops for alternative crops.
Ricardo Vargas
Investigator
-In 25 years they did not succeed in stopping the flow of drugs to the United States and Europe. So, it's time to ask the question......... why the insist and continue with this strategy.
:17:54:
With the increase of US military aid to Colombia, it appears likely the war will continue for many more years.
Whilst in Colombia the bloodshedding goes on. And sadly not druglord blood.
An ICARO Production