PEASANTS PAY THE COST OF 'WAR ON DRUGS'

Colombian Peasant Leader Addresses Detrimental Costs Of U.S.-Backed
"Plan Colombia"

When Miguel Cifuentes returns to the Middle Magdalena region of
Colombia in May, his fate will be questionable.

As the executive secretary of the Cimitarra River Valley Peasant
Association, Cifuentes could be in a dangerous position due to the
public stance he has taken in speaking out about human rights
violations occurring throughout Colombia .

Cifuentes spoke to a group of OSU students, faculty and Corvallis
community members on Wednesday afternoon. His focus was on "Plan
Colombia," a U.S.-funded program that supplements the "War on Drugs."

The program entails fumigating coca fields; however, rice, corn and
vegetable crops meant for peasant consumption are not immune to the
fumigation, thus results of this plan have done more harm than good,
according to Cifuentes.

The affects have been detrimental to peasant farmers and rural
communities.

"We are proposing the gradual and manual eradication of coca,
accompanied by the implementation of alternative crops so that the
farmers are able to provide for their families," Cifuentes said.

"The 'War on Drugs' is used to justify political corruption and
fumigation. With financial, military and technical support, the U. S.
is generating a battlefield in Colombia," he said.

According to the peasant association, for every acre of coca sprayed,
between one and four acres of food crops are also affected.

The peasants suffer from health problems, including intestinal, skin
and eye irritations.

Because of this, more than 25,000 people have come together through
the peasant association to protest the fumigation of their land.

However, their calls for justice have not been well received by the
government or the paramilitary.

"Because we speak out in contradiction to these policies, we are
accused falsely," Cifuentes said.

According to Cifuentes, two members of the board have been killed and
another six have warrants out for their arrest.

Those who speak out are threatened by the paramilitary through
messages sent via local TV and radio stations or telephone calls.

This is the case not only for members of his group, but for all social
and political groups, such as the Coca-Cola workers union and student
organizations, who oppose government policies, Cifuentes said.

Since 2000, the U.S. government has given more than $2 billion to the
Colombian military and police, who in turn retain close relationships
with the paramilitary.

In the Middle Magdalena region, military checkpoints have been set up;
preventing the movement of food, health products and people for the
past three years.

More than 500 peasants have disappeared at these checkpoints,
Cifuentes said.

Cifuentes had his own terrifying experience in the spring of
2003.

"At 6:30 p.m. on March 4, I was traveling in a canoe from Cimitarra to
Barrancabermeja. There was a group of 12 heavily armed men chasing me.
Fortunately, only one bullet grazed my index finger," he said.

Cifuentes spent the entire night hiding along the river, and was not
rescued by fellow human rights workers until 7:30 the following morning.

Cifuentes and his fellow activists have proposed several substitutions
for coca growing in attempts to curb the fumigation, but he said the
government has not been receptive.

Their proposals include using land for cattle ranching, and
biodiversity projects within the tropical rainforest.

"The media say that things are advancing in Colombia, that the
paramilitary is dying off," he said, "but the paramilitary will
continue to carry out the dirty work for which they were created."

Thus, when Cifuentes returns home after his month-long tour of the
Northwest, his fate will be questionable for numerous reasons; death
threats await him, the government ignores him and there is a constant
presence of poison in the land on which he lives.

Yet he continues to live with this so "that the reality I know be
understood," he said.

Katie Gill is the international affairs editor for The Daily
Barometer. She can be reached at baro.news@studentmedia.orst.edu
(mailto:baro.news@studentmedia.orst.edu) or 737-6376.