Kolumbien. Colombia’s forests, silent victims of the war on drugs
Kolumbien. Colombia’s forests, silent victims of the war on drugs
On a sweltering Tuesday morning, a Vietnam War-era helicopter filled with judicial police officers and military explosives experts lifts into the sky above the Amazonian backwater town of San José del Guaviare, Colombia.
As it flies south, the mosaic of cattle pastures crisscrossed by red clay roads dissolves into patches of jungle disfigured by fresh deforestation. This is the Amazon frontier: a vague and constantly progressing delimitation between humankind and the wild. From the sky, the jungle seems infinite and paradisiacal. But the tensions that exist below are soon revealed in the form of iridescent green scars: patches of Erythroxylum coca, an innocuous-looking shrub whose leaves are the raw material for cocaine. IDPC - International Drug Policy Consortium, UK, 05.07.2023)
https://idpc.net/news/2023/7/colombia-s-forests-silent-victims-of-the-war-on-drugs