Navigating Chemical Toxicity in Coca Production in the Colombian Borderlands of Putumayo

ABSTRACT

In Putumayo, a jungle borderland in southern Colombia, thousands of farmers derive their livelihood from the cultivation and processing of coca leaf, exposing themselves to fertilizers, pesticides, and other toxic chemicals on a daily basis. In this article, we show how the coca growers’ relationship with chemicals and the health risks to which they are exposed, are politically and institutionally structured. We discuss the specific impact of anti-narcotics policy in a broader context of deep inequalities and document the emergent and adaptive day-to-day attempts of the farmers to navigate the structural risk environment.

RESUMEN

En el Putumayo, una zona selvática al sur de Colombia, miles de campesinos viven del cultivo y procesamiento de la hoja de coca, exponiéndose cotidianamente a fertilizantes, pesticidas y otros productos químicos. En este artículo mostramos cómo la relación de los cocaleros con los insumos químicos y los riesgos para la salud a los que están expuestos se estructura política e institucionalmente. Analizamos el impacto específico de la política antidrogas en un contexto más amplio de profundas desigualdades y documentamos los intentos de los campesinos para sortear su entorno de riesgo.

KEYWORDS:

• Chemicals
• coca farmers
• Colombia
• institutional calamity
• structural violence
• war on drugs

Acknowledgments

This article would not have been possible without the generous collaboration of the cocaleros of Putumayo, to whom we express our deepest gratitude.

We would also like to thank Diego Lagos and Gustavo Posso for taking the photographs included in the article.

The project was approved by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine Research Ethics Committee and the Ethics Committee of the Faculty of Human Sciences of Universidad Nacional de Colombia.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. “Laboratory” refers to a site where farmers process coca leaves into coca paste (with the name depending on the region), as opposed to a site where drug traffickers produce cocaine (referred to the cocina, or kitchen, in Putumayo).

2. The buyer may be part of an armed group or a delegate of the drug traffickers (Jansson 2006).

3. This paper and the previous three years of fieldwork on which it is based are part of a larger research project, Drugs and (dis)order. For more information see https://drugs-disorder.soas.ac.uk/.

4. Ramírez (2001: 79) argues that after 1990 the use of chemicals became the norm.

Additional information

Funding

This research was part of the Drugs & (Dis)order project, funded by the UK Global Challenges Research Fund [ES/P011543/1]. Adam Holland is conducting a PhD funded by the Medical Research Council [MR/W006308/1 and MR/X018636/1].

Notes on contributors

Camilo Acero

Camilo Acero is a political scientist/political economist interested in illicit drug economies, land politics, and the political economy of development in rural Colombia. He is currently a PhD student in the Department of International Development at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Additionally, he is an Associate Researcher of the Observatorio de Tierras. https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2841-3651.

Linda Ordoñez

Linda Ordóñez is a Research Associate in the Observatorio de Tierras, a Master’s student in Political Studies at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia, and a researcher for Comisión Colombiana de Juristas, Bogotá. https://orcid.org/0009-0009-2247-4630.

Magdalena Harris

Magdalena Harris is Professor of Inclusion Health Sociology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and holds an honorary Inclusion Health Consultant position at University College London Hospital NHS Trust. https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8718-8226.

Tim Rhodes

Tim Rhodes holds professorial appointments in the sociology of health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (UK) and University of New South Wales (Australia). https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2400-9838.

Adam Holland

Adam Holland is a Medical Research Council Clinical Research Training Fellow at the University of Bristol and Honorary Research Fellow at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3617-1966.

Francisco Gutierrez-Sanín

Francisco Gutiérrez-Sanín holds a professorship at The Instituto de Estudios Políticos y Relaciones Internacionales (IEPRI) of The Universidad Nacional de Colombia and is the Scientific Director of the Observatorio de Tierras. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9836-734X.