This source is an article from the news magazine The Economist which was written in 2002 discussing Alvaro Uribe’s policies in relation to coca growing and fighting the FARC. The article takes a very even handed approach to what Uribe’s plans are. Citing the possible damages they may bring and what they overlook, but also mentioning Uribe’s rationale behind them. One of the most important things this article focuses on is Uribe’s intentions to increase the use of aerial fumigation, it explains that he believes it is necessary in order to counter the FARC. Others, however, explain that he is not taking into account the things that have influenced coca growers to stop growing coca in the past such as connecting farmers more to Colombia’s legal economy through new infrastructure.
This source is useful because it gives an early look into the hardline policies of Uribe’s presidency. It shows how this level of militarism and making a total defeat of the FARC his primary focus mostly ignored and also targeted his own citizens. There were other ways to incentivize these farmers to not grow coca, but Uribe saw them as acting for the FARC and not in their own self interest when they grew coca. This prompted him to increase fumigations and it is also a sign of the other ways he and the military would act in years to come.
Excerpt:
Andres Pastrana, Mr Uribe’s predecessor, was reluctant to authorise all-out spraying. He feared that this would prejudice abortive peace talks with the FARC, the main guerrilla group, which controls much of Putumayo and neighbouring Caqueta. And critics say that spraying damages human health and the environment—as well as wiping out adjacent food crops. Officials counter that glyphosate, the herbicide involved, is harmless to health, and that the coca industry itself does huge ecological damage. Under Mr Pastrana, only commercial coca plantations, of three hectares or more, rather than family farms were supposed to be sprayed. Now there have been reports that this restriction has been dropped.
Although some of his advisers are said to be nervous about driving more coca farmers into the ranks of the FARC, Mr Uribe insists that spraying is needed. “If we don’t destroy drugs, they will destroy our democracy and ecology”, he says. On September 3rd, he issued a decree speeding up the procedure for confiscating drug traffickers’ assets. He is also keen on shooting down drug planes. According to Francisco Santos, the vice-president, a score of clandestine flights each week carry drugs to Venezuela, returning with arms. Such aircraft were routinely intercepted, with CIA help, until an incident last year in which an American missionary and her baby were killed when their plane was shot down in Peru. American officials say they will soon authorise the resumption of the shoot-down programme.
The Economist. “The Weedkiller War.” The Economist. The Economist Newspaper, September 5, 2002. https://www.economist.com/the-americas/2002/09/05/the-weedkiller-war.