Timeline
Discussion Questions
Digital Resources
Discussion Questions
Discussion Questions
- How is Plan Colombia similar and different to other U.S. anti-drug policies?
- In what ways does this recent history impact the state of Colombian politics today?
- Why did Pastrana go along with the United State’s new “war on terror” framing of Plan Colombia if he had been so committed to peace in the past?
- Will coca eradication strategies inherently be militaristic?
- In what other examples do you see the military influence foreign policy like they did in relation to Plan Colombia?
- Given what we know about what actually makes farmers decide to stop growing coca, what methods would have worked the best?
- Was the spraying meant to do harm? Or do you think the governments just wanted results and did not care about the consequences?
- Can we conceive of Plan Colombia as a victory even though it has had a negligible effect on the drug trade?
- The FARC was incredibly violent and carried out that violence to attain political ends, were the U.S. and Colombian government’s right about how they conceived of the FARC?
- Why was the U.S. so willing to fund a military it knew to be committing human rights violations?
Digital Resources
This is an article concerting the “false positives” scandal that I briefly mentioned in my contextual essay. It examines the scandal, the Uribe era, and the role General Mario Montoya played in it.
Palau, Mariana. “The ‘False Positives’ Scandal That Felled Colombia’s Military Hero.” The Guardian. Guardian News and Media, November 19, 2020. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/nov/19/colombia-false-positives-killings-general-mario-montoya-trial.
This documentary from 1999 covers the lives of coca farmers both experiencing life under the FARC and dealing with eradication programs. It provides an interesting social and political history that takes place right at the beginning of the implementation of the plan.
Death by Coca. Journeyman Pictures. Icaro Productions, 1999. https://www.journeyman.tv/film/758.
This is an article from a journal covering indigenous peoples’ lives and cultures. It documents the effects that aerial fumigation was having on indigenous coca growing communities in the early 2000s.
Walcott, Judith. “Spraying Crops, Eradicating People.” Cultural Survival, December 1, 2002. https://www.culturalsurvival.org/publications/cultural-survival-quarterly/spraying-crops-eradicating-people.
This is a feature of President Pastrana done by Mike Wallace of CBS. It includes the full unedited interview at the end. It is useful for understanding his thought process and what he was advocating for.
Wallace, Mike. President Pastrana Interview. C-Span. CBS, 1999. https://www.c-span.org/video/?154029-1%2Fpresident-pastrana-interview.
This video is a look into the lives of coca growers in recent years. It covers the current state of coca eradication and replacement and the impact that is having.
Harris, Johnny. Why Colombia Is Losing the Cocaine War. YouTube. Vox, 2018. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDa_SpvbeCQ.