Colombia - recursos

NGO sites

• Assamblea por la paz
  Site of a coalition of Colombian NGO's working for peace in Colombia. Because the "war on drugs" in Colombia is closely related to the current peace process, there is a lot of information on the drug issue.
  Language: Spanish
• Paz Colombia
  Paz Colombia is a coalition of Colombian civil society to counter the effects of Plan Colombia and to start a new process of peace in Colombia. It offers information on the relation between the peace process and the problem of illicit crops.
  Language: Spanish and some English
• US Aid to Colombia
  Colombia's conflict and human rights crisis are worsening, and US military and police aid are rising fast. As the United States deepens its involvement in Colombia, this website offers a central source of information and analysis. Much information on Plan Colombia and how the drugs issue troubles the peace process in Colombia. A resource provided by the Center for International Policy. Best resource on the web about US aid to Plan Colombia and the internal conflict.
  Language: English
• El Centro de Investigación para la Paz (CIP-FUHEM) ha lanzado la página Web del "proyecto Europa y Colombia: diplomacia y sociedad civil www.euro-colombia.org, que promueve el CIP en colaboración con organizaciones de la sociedad civil de Europa, Colombia y Estados Unidos. El objetivo del proyecto es analizar el papel de la comunidad internacional - y en especial de Europa- hacia Colombia, y promover un futuro proceso de paz en el país.
  En la Web podéis encontrar análisis de prestigiosos analistas e instituciones, documentos de interés, y enlaces con organizaciones nacionales e internacionales, oficiales y de la sociedad civil, que permiten acceder a información de primera mano y desde diferentes puntos de vista.
• Transnational Institute: Drugs and Peace in Colombia
  The project "Drugs and Peace in Colombia", jointly coordinated by TNI and Acción Andina Colombia, aims to intervene directly in a pressing issue in the troubled peace talks between the Pastrana government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC): how to reach an agreement on the widespread drug cultivation in Colombia. The fumigation of coca and opium poppy fields with chemical herbicides and the pending introduction of a biological eradication agent (a coca killing fungus) clearly are becoming key obstacles in the current peace process.
  Language: English and Spanish
• Arbeitsgruppe Schweiz-Kolumbien (Switzerland)
  Site of a Swiss solidarity group with independent news on Colombia, and special pages on Plan Colombia and Drug Policy.
  Language: English, German and Spanish
• Colombia Support Network (US)
  CSN is a non-governmental, grass-roots organisation that works for the just and peaceful resolution of conflict in Colombia and for the strengthening of solidarity between the peoples of North America and Colombia.
  Language: English
• Corporación Unidades Democráticas para el Desarrollo (CEUDES)
  En CEUDES participa un equipo de profesionales de diferentes áreas de las Ciencias Sociales, Ambientales y de la Salud que han unido sus conocimientos y capacidad de gestión, con el fin de fortalecer la participación de las organizaciones sociales en la conducción de su propio destino y en la participación en los procesos y movimientos ciudadanos que buscan caminos de negociación política por la paz y la justicia social en Colombia.
  Language: Spanish

Government and Official Sites

• United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC): Colombia Country Office
  Coca Survey 2001 [PDF document]
• Inter-American Observatory on Drugs (CICAD) Country Page: Colombia
  Language: English and Spanish
• Presidencia de Colombia
  Site of the office of the President of Colombia. Good site to start to review official Colombian government drug policy, in Spanish (more elaborated) and English. Special page on Drug Trafficking. With Archive and Search Page. Links to other government agencies.
  Language: English and Spanish
• Defensoría del Pueblo
  Site of the Colombian Ombudsman. Collection of interesting reports on human rights, displaced people, fumigations etc.
  Fumigaciones y proyectos de desarrollo alternativo en el departamento de Putumayo [PDF document]
  Language: Spanish
• Dirección Nacional de Estupefacientes
  Liderar y coordinar la política del Estado Colombiano para la superación progresiva y sistemática de las manifestaciones del fenómeno de la droga.
  Language: Spanish
• Policía Nacional de Colombia: Dirección Antinarcóticos
  Special page of Colombian National Police on anti-narcotics.
  Language: Spanish
• Inter-American Observatory on Drugs (CICAD) Country Page: Colombia
  Language: English and Spanish
• United States Embassy in Colombia: Narcotics Affairs Section
  Several US embassies have a Narcotics Affairs Section. Some of them have a site. This is the one in Colombia.
  Language: Spanish

Documents

• Efectos de la fumigación con glifosato en los municipios de Valle de Guamuez, San Miguel y Orito, Putumayo
  Dyva Revelo Calderón – Sección Epidemiología DASALUD Putumayo
• Open letter against aerial spray in Chocó (Colombia)
  A big number of environmental and human rights organisations, independent academics, specialists and individuals opposing the aerial spray programs with herbicides have subscribed the letter "Chocó is part of Colombia too" to reject the announced spray coca crops with herbicides in that region. "Despite the fact that we still know very little about the rich biodiversity and enormous potential of the Chocó Bio-geographical region, those of us who are interested in developing our understanding of nature's complex ecosystems can't help but react to the ignorance shown by those who approve and commit to these aggressive approaches which cause social and environmental damage, in the name of improving security and defeating narco-terrorism."
• The European Role in the Fight Against Narcoterrorism. Robert Charles, Assistant Secretary for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, Testimony Before Chairman Cass Ballenger and the House Committee on International Relations Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere, Washington, DC. 18 November 2004
• Colombia debe probar en los hechos, que el sacrificio de sus mejores hijos no ha sido en vano en la lucha contra el narcotráfico. Memorando del ex asesor en políticas de drogas, Alberto Rueda, al gobierno colombiano. 19 October 2004 [PDF document]
• Europe: Neither Plan Colombia, nor Peace Process. From Good Intentions to High Frustrations Joaquín Roy, Miami European Union Center, Working Paper Series Vol. 2 No. 7, June 2002 [PDF document]
• Illegal Drugs in Colombia: From Illegal Economic Boom to Social Crisis Francisco Thoumi, August 2001 [PDF document]
• Statement on European Union Support for the Colombian Peace Process (ABC Group), Brussels, 26 April 2001
• Driven Mad by Itch Marjon van Royen, NRC Handelsblad, 28 December 2000
• Two Wars or One? Drugs, Guerrillas, and Colombia's New Violencia William M. LeoGrande and Kenneth E. Sharpe, World Policy Journal, Volume XVII, No 3, Fall 2000
• Into the Quagmire: Colombia and the War on Drugs Coletta Youngers at a forum on 2 May 2000 sponsored by Foreign Policy In Focus, The Nation, and the World Policy Institute (Foreign Policy in Focus Special Report)
• Narcotics and War Become Intertwined Larry Rohter, The New York Times, 21 April 2000
• ¿Erradicar la actual política antidrogas? Ricardo Vargas Meza, in UN Periódico (de la Universidad Nacional de Colombia), nr. 14, 9 April 2000
• A muddle in the jungle Editorial in The Economist, 4 March 2000
• Plan Colombia: ¿Construcción de paz o sobredosis de guerra? Ricardo Vargas Meza, in Desde abajo, March 2000
• The Risks of US Aid. US Special Forces trained human rights violators in Colombia
  This article was originally published in Colombia's El Espectador newspaper:
  Los peligros de la ayuda militar El Espectador, 27 Febrero 2000
  Ayuda encubierta a militares colombianos: Fuerzas Especiales de E.U. en Colombia El Espectador, 9 Enero 2000
• Guerra a la coca
  Revista Semana, 8 Febrero 2000
• Colombia's Role in International Drug Trafficking Winifred Tate, in Foreign Policy In Focus, Volume 4, Number 30, November 1999
• Pact Near on Aid to Colombia The Washington Post, 9 October 1999
• Colombia calls for arms from Uncle Sam The Economist Editorial, 25 September 1999
• The Narco-Guerrilla War Newsweek, 9 August 1999
• Boinas verdes en la Amazonia El Espectador, 2 Agosto 1999
• US Widens Colombia Counter-Drug Efforts - Restrictions Loosened on Data Sharing The Washington Post, 10 July 1999
• La agenda secreta para Colombia El Espectador, 4 June 1999
• The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the Ilicit Drug Trade Ricardo Vargas Meza (Acción Andina, TNI and WOLA), June 1999
• US To Aid Colombian Military The Washington Post, 27 December 1998
• Waging War: US Policy Toward Colombia speech by Coletta Youngers, at the 1998 meeting of the Latin American Studies Association, 24-26 September 1998
• Still seeing red: the CIA fosters death squads in Colombia Frank Smyth, in The Progressive, June 1998
• Colombia's Blowback - Formerly CIA-backed paramilitaries are major drug traffickers now Frank Smyth, in Crime in Uniform (TNI/Acción Andina), December 1997
• Coca Eradication Efforts in Colombia Coletta Youngers, WOLA Briefing Series, 2 June 1997
• Colombia: The Heresy of the Manicheans Ricardo Vargas Meza, in Democracy, Human Rights and Militarism in the War on Drugs in Latin America (TNI - Acción Andina), April 1997
• Colombia's Gringo Invasion Frank Smyth and Winifred Tate, in Covert Action Quarterly, Spring 1997
• The Impact of Drugs Control Policies at the National Level in Colombia Ricardo Vargas Meza, in: Release Drugs Edition Issue, 11 March 1996

News

• Drugnews: Colombia
  Press clippings on drug related news from Colombia.
  Language: English
• Center for International Policy (CIP) Colombia Project: Current News
  Press articles on US aid to Colombia and the internal conflict in Colombia.
  Language: English and Spanish