The victims of Colombia's aerial fumigation

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The victims of Colombia's aerial fumigation

10 April 2014

The rural farmers who are negatively impacted by aerial fumigation in Colombia are one of the most overlooked groups affected by the continuing drug conflict in the South American nation.

The livelihoods and health of small-scale farmers are continuously threatened by the damaging effects of chemical pesticides dropped from government-contracted planes in Colombia’s remote regions. ‘Aerial fumigation’ targets the rural areas where coca cultivation is possible.

Colombia is one of the largest producers of cocaine in the world. The profitability of drug growing, production and trafficking has contributed to a decades old conflict in the country between left-wing, right-wing groups and non-ideological drug gangs struggling for control of the trade.

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