For my project I will be studying Plan Colombia which was an attempt by the U.S. and Colombian governments to eliminate the growth of coca which is one of the main ingredients in cocaine. This was implemented through a number of strategies, but the main method was aerial fumigation. This policy had a wide variety of outcomes including displacement of people, environmental harm, and poor health outcomes to those exposed, but none of these was a significant reduction in the amount of coca being grown or cocaine production until new methods were later attempted. The years I will focus on will be 1998-2005. Though there has been a large amount of research done on the successes and failures of Plan Colombia, not enough is written on the motivation of coca farmers to continue to grow the plant, my project attempts to fill that gap. An examination of the policies undertaken in the plan indicates that the focus on aggressive eradication of coca and linking the growers to the FARC and other guerillas criminalized them. I argue that this criminalization and the militarization of coca eradication discouraged growers from engaging with the same society that was criminalizing them. My project will draw on interviews and personal accounts of coca growers as well as government reports, newspaper articles, and television news reports from the time. Additionally, I will use analysis of Plan Colombia by historians, economists, and political scientists from a number of perspectives to understand the modern debate around it. This topic is significant because often the United States has encouraged or engaged in militarized policies in Latin America which have led to political wins, but not social improvements. Understanding what is at the root of these militarized solutions and how they have failed the most vulnerable can show us a path towards improving policy.