Abstract
<p>While there is growing consensus that the 'war on drugs' has failed to decrease drug consumption in the Global North, we know much less about how drug production has impacted communities of the Global South. This is particularly true for the cultivation of coca leaf in Colombia, which is increasingly planted in isolated rural areas such as national parks and in the collectively titled lands of ethnic communities (indigenous and Afro-descendant) where it is both difficult to detect and to eradicate. This article explains how Afro-descendant communities in Colombia have resisted both coca cultivation and a controversial war on drugs strategy to eliminate coca –aerial eradication – through a framework of ecological difference. It also explores why political ecologists can be important allies in this struggle and in the greater context of socio<em>-</em>environmental justice for rural communities in the Global South. <strong></strong></p><p><strong>Key Words:</strong> rural, ethnic, difference, war, coca, Colombia</p>
Highlights
IntroductionAerial eradication – regardless of one's perspectives about its efficacy or socio-environmental impacts – can be considered a failure because instead of working with communities and organizations that actively discourage the cultivation of coca, aerial eradication further alienates comunidades negras, and peasants in general, who are already distrustful of a Colombian state that has limited presence in rural parts of the country
On August 20, 2012, Colombian army helicopters and small planes used chemical warfare on the collective territory of the black communities of Alto Guapi.As a result of this chemical warfare, the local residents say that Francisco Paz Cuenú, an 80-year old grandfather, immediately fell ill and passed away on August 21, 2012 at 4:00A.M., after being exposed to that damned fumigation poison.2While there is growing consensus that the 'war on drugs' has failed to decrease drug consumption in the Global North, we know much less about how drug production has impacted socio-environmental justice in communities of the Global South
Why was aerial eradication permitted, especially considering that the Pacific region is largely occupied by two sets of ethnic minority populations –indigenous and Afro-descendants – that have supposedly earned the right to determine what happens within the boundaries of their respectively titled lands? Why does the letter paint the image of a Colombian armed forces intentionally waging chemical warfare on this particular community?
Summary
Aerial eradication – regardless of one's perspectives about its efficacy or socio-environmental impacts – can be considered a failure because instead of working with communities and organizations that actively discourage the cultivation of coca, aerial eradication further alienates comunidades negras, and peasants in general, who are already distrustful of a Colombian state that has limited presence in rural parts of the country In presenting this strategy as a failure, I demonstrate three important ways political ecology can advance understandings of the war on drugs in general: 1) people and their traditions are part and parcel of the biodiversity endangered by drug production and counternarcotics efforts; 2) paying attention to culture means paying attention to the internal struggles to preserve the ways of life endangered by drug production; and 3) political ecologists, especially those working closely with communities impacted by drug production and counternarcotics efforts, are uniquely situated to challenge the 'hierarchies of credibility' (Tate 2015) that determine drug policies. What I encountered in many of these interviews, was two sets of complimentary performances developed from PCN's discussions of these problems: 1) the staunch objection to aerial eradication as a counternarcotics strategy initiated by a foreign government (the United States) and carried out by the Colombian counternarcotics police (DIRAN) and 2) the condemnation of coca cultivation as an economic activity alien to local agricultural traditions and largely conducted to satisfy foreign consumption (mainly, the United States)
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