From San Pablo we traveled by truck into the surrounding mountains to the three farming communities named above. In San Juan Medio, we took a long hike up the hillside to a farmer’s house where a group of farmers had gathered to tell us about their struggles. Many of these farmers had at one time grown coca but now had switched to growing cocao in an effort to find a way of living without contributing to the illegal drug industry. Through a policy called Plan Colombia funded by both the United States and Colombia, many coca fields were being fumigated. Although these farmers had ended coca production on their fields and had informed the government of their change in crops, the fumigations had continued. It has become more and more apparent to these communities that the fumigations are more of a covert effort to displace small farmers off their land rather than deter coca growth in the region. Studies have found that the fumigation solution used only kills about 20% of coca plants in a field while it has a much more detrimental affect on other cash crops and food crops the families use for personal use. In addition, cocaine production has not diminished as a result of Plan Colombia. These farmers are in a continual struggle against the government to stop fumigations of their fields.
In the other two communities we continued to here more and more stories of displacement and struggles with both the Colombian military and paramilitary forces. In some cases these forces had burned down houses in buildings of an entire community. Within the past year the returned to their land and rebuilt the buildings. At this point military forces are present in the area and the people fear that the same thing could happen again.
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