Colombia

Colombia is renowned for the quality of its coffee. As the second largest producer of coffee in the world and with 800,000 hectares of cultivated land, the Colombian coffee industry supports 500,000 farmers. Most Colombian coffee is produced by small farmers who handpick each cherry and transport their crops over perilous mountain terrain to market. Coffee is the lifeblood of the Colombian export economy, and the presence of landmines is negatively impacting the lives of the farmers who are the driving force behind coffee production.

Colombia is the only country in the Western Hemisphere where landmines are still being laid. Guerilla groups intentionally use landmines to displace citizens by mining villages and farms and then mining houses and roads to prevent their return. This strategy, using landmines to target civilians, makes Colombia somewhat unique because rather than landmines being confined to borders or areas considered militarily significant, they have spread to over 55% (615 out of 1119) of all municipalities making landmine risk education and mine field marking extremely difficult.

In 2004 there were 863 reported casualties due to landmines and unexploded ordnance yet the government believes there are many more that go unreported because people from rural populations never reach health centers where information is collected.

• In Colombia, landmines claim three new victims a day
• Colombia has the third highest incidence of landmine victims in the world behind Cambodia and Afghanistan
• Antioquia, the heart of Colombia’s historic coffee belt, also records twice as many landmine casualties than any of Colombia’s 31 mine-affected departments.
• Colombia’s landmine problem doubled between 2002 and 2004 from 946 incidents a year to 1828.

Landmines are a persistent problem throughout Colombia affecting 31 out of 32 departments. It disproportionately affects coffee growing areas, however. Antioquia, the department at the center of Colombia’s coffee growing region, accounts for 23% of Colombia’s mine-related incidents with Santander (10%) and Caqueta (8%), also coffee growing areas, following in second and third. Coffee workers and others involved in agriculture are particularly vulnerable because not only are their regions at increase risk of incidents, but rehabilitation is less likely to exist.

As of 2005, it was found that landmine survivor treatment for civilians was poor because the majority of medical facilities are located in big cities far from the majority of mine affected areas. Poor farmers who do make it to rehabilitation centers are responsible for their own transportation, food, and lodging costs, making it impossible for most despite the fact that the medical care is free. Economic rehabilitation has been left almost completely unaddressed.