Colombia's Coca Wars
The Catatumbo forest is at the heart of the largest coca-growing area in Colombia. Cocaine has become the country’s most important export.
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00:00 [Music]
00:04 [Birds chirping]
00:07 The Catatumbo Forest is at the heart of the largest coca growing area in Colombia.
00:13 The country is producing more cocaine than ever before,
00:16 and the drug is now Colombia's most important export.
00:20 But in recent times, a new trend has emerged.
00:23 While coca production is booming, many farmers are having trouble finding buyers.
00:28 The reason? Overproduction.
00:31 [Music]
00:53 My name is Wilder Franco, and I work in agriculture.
00:59 The income I earn from coca allows me and my family to get what we need to live, only the essentials.
01:07 Why do I grow coca?
01:09 Catatumbo is known for being very large and remote.
01:13 You are far away from the main roads and highways.
01:16 It's much easier to transport 10 kilos of coca paste, which fits into a small bag, than 20 or 30 loads of bananas, which take up much more space.
01:28 [Music]
01:50 There's just one step missing to turn this into coca paste.
01:54 It's not yet been fried. That means it's still impure.
01:57 You throw it into a pot, heat it up, and remove the water and all the impurities.
02:03 Two years ago, this was worth 2,750,000 pesos, about 640 euros.
02:10 Now it's worth nothing because nobody buys it anymore.
02:15 There are about 120,000 to 130,000 plants here.
02:20 We use them to make 30 or 40 kilos of coca paste.
02:24 That's about 75 to 80 million pesos, around 17 to 18,000 euros.
02:32 But now I'm in danger of losing everything because nobody is buying coca paste right now.
02:39 I harvest and store it all, but nobody buys it.
02:44 I think this is the biggest crisis coca farmers in Catatumbo have ever faced.
02:49 It doesn't just affect Catatumbo and North Santander, but other parts of the country as well.
02:55 [Music]
03:00 My name is Johandry Villamizar, and I'm 17 years old.
03:05 I've been working here for about two years.
03:08 Before that, I went to school in Venezuela.
03:11 But because of the economic crisis, I had to come here to work.
03:15 Back then, I lived with my grandparents.
03:18 My grandmother was getting more and more sick.
03:21 My grandfather had an injured arm.
03:24 That's why my grandmother said I should come work here.
03:32 To help them out, I sometimes send them money.
03:35 Harvesting coca is strictly illegal.
03:37 Sometimes government soldiers come to a coca farm and destroy the coca plants.
03:42 If you're working there, you get arrested.
03:44 They can even burn down the lab and destroy everything.
03:55 Who are you?
03:58 Johandry.
03:59 How much do you have?
04:01 31 kilograms.
04:11 We used to have lots of money and little coca paste.
04:13 Now we have lots of paste but no money.
04:34 Many people here work with coca because its cultivation accounts for 70% of economic output.
04:40 Everything here revolves around coca.
04:42 The problem right now is selling it, which has a huge impact on trade.
04:45 Everything is affected.
04:49 Anything else?
05:00 Here's what coca does.
05:02 It's the plant that kills.
05:04 Armed groups are fighting for more land so that they can expand coca cultivation.
05:08 It's the reason behind all the conflict.
05:11 If we were growing cassava, plantains and other things on these lands, nobody would be fighting over it.
05:16 And we, the entire population, are the ones caught in the middle.
05:21 My name is Claudia Patricia Manrique Rios.
05:24 I'm working to help victims of sexual violence.
05:37 It's difficult to be a woman in this area.
05:40 Some of us have endured horrible things.
05:44 In my case, it was sexual violence.
05:52 We live in constant fear.
05:55 My personal experience is difficult because you can't fathom how someone would think of using your body as a spoil of war.
06:06 I fought with all my might, but I couldn't.
06:12 When you have a gun to your head, it's very difficult.
06:21 Also, because my daughter was there.
06:25 And I thought, what else can I do?
06:29 I had no strength left.
06:34 And then, after I had fought for as long as I could, they hit me in the face with one of the weapons they had with them.
06:43 I passed out and then regained consciousness.
06:47 I was gone and came back.
06:51 I remember it well.
06:54 These are memories I would like to erase.
07:07 This experience destroyed me emotionally, sexually, personally.
07:32 I wish we didn't have coca in our region.
07:35 Because if there was no coca, we wouldn't have to live with all these dangers all the time, with the confrontations.
07:42 We wouldn't live in fear.
07:49 I need to tell you something.
07:52 I've checked our finances, and the situation is tough.
07:59 I hardly have any work, and that affects wage payments.
08:03 On the one hand, there's no more work.
08:06 We can no longer harvest coca on the farm.
08:12 And on the other, we have to talk about my debt to you, the wages I still owe you for the last few weeks.
08:23 I've already done the math, and I think I'll have to pay you with a few grams of coca paste.
08:30 Because as you know, there's no cash right now.
08:40 If there's no more work because things are so hard, I don't want coca paste.
08:44 I'd rather wait until you can sell coca paste.
08:52 And when you have cash to pay me, let me know, and I'll come back then to collect the money.
08:59 You tell me when there's money or work, and I'll come back.
09:06 This is going to be my house.
09:17 This will be my little house.
09:22 There are two rooms here. One on the right is the bathroom.
09:29 The other room is the living room, dining room, and kitchen.
09:40 One room I'll make available to victims who need a place to stay.
09:46 What we can do here, in this big dining room, is have conversations.
09:52 We can talk about topics like empowerment, so we can feel better.
09:59 This house is a start. It's a rebirth for me in my own healing process.
10:07 If I could only manage to finish building this house, there are not that many women in this area.
10:17 One way or another, I'll help them heal their wounds.
10:21 If I could do that for myself, bit by bit, then I can do that for them, too.
10:35 We've paid a steep price.
10:38 Sometimes I wish the government was a bit more humane and would help us more.
10:45 We often feel abandoned and alone, and sometimes we get tired.
10:54 Still, we have no choice but to carry on,
10:59 always with the hope that maybe one day we'll have peace.
11:24 Because this crisis of not being able to sell coca paste has dragged on so long,
11:30 it's now become impossible for us to make a living from coca cultivation.
11:35 But selling palm oil could be a good business.
11:39 For one, it requires only a small investment. It's also easier to cultivate.
11:44 The palm is cut every four to six months, and it's harvested with a scythe.
11:48 You don't need to be a slave to cultivation, like you do with coca.
11:53 The new danger I see as a farmer is that palm cultivation will lead to the development of a monoculture.
12:00 I fear it will spread too much and degrade the soil as a result.
12:06 Many farmers have switched from coca to palm oil production,
12:13 but violence by armed groups continues.
12:18 The world needs to stop the spread of coca.
12:22 We need to stop the spread of coca.
12:26 We need to stop the spread of coca.