This evening #Colombia's Ministry of Justice signed a decree, long in the works, to restart aerial coca fumigation.

With this, the government may well be able to restart spraying despite several pending legal requisites. Short thread from Putumayo

. @CrisisGroup has warned about risks of restarting fumigation, in the context of rising rural insecurity.

The government has argued that coca is a root cause of violence, but we find forced eradication increases conflict. https://www.crisisgroup.org/latin-america-caribbean/andes/colombia/87-deeply-rooted-coca-eradication-and-violence-colombia

In areas with small hold farming, where food crops are intermixed with coca, fumigation affects all crops in the area, sparking a crisis in economic and food security for all residents, regardless of whether they grow coca

We discussed this concern today: https://www.facebook.com/tejedorasdevida/videos/256170752872726/

Here in Putumayo, a region that has lived through aerial fumigation for 30 years, there are grave concerns.

In the pandemic, small hold farmers have told us they survived only thanks to the income from coca.

Communities who have devoted an incredible force to leave coca behind after the peace agreement in 2016 now fear their alternative livelihood projects and crops will be sprayed.
"And why invest if they will fumigate everything?" One told us.

Fumigation thereby runs the risk of increasing social tensions and conflictivity in rural communities.

"If I don't have coca but my neighbor does, I am affected," as one resident told us. Fumigation pits neighbor against neighbor.

Fumigation leaves lasting impacts, from the quality of the soil to the social cohesion to the rural economy. But its impact is at beast temporarily as years of spraying has borne witness.

The coca relocates, moves into new areas, while the human impact lingers.