Between the Guerrillas and the State

<div>Responding to pressure from the United States the Colombian government in 1996 intensified aerial fumigation of coca plantations in the western Amazon region. This crackdown on illicit drug cultivation sparked an uprising among the region's <i>cocaleros</i> small-scale coca producers and harvest workers. More than 200000 campesinos marched that summer to protest the heightened threat to their livelihoods. <i>Between the Guerrillas and the State</i> is an ethnographic analysis of the <i>cocalero</i> social movement that emerged from the uprising. María Clemencia Ramírez focuses on how the movement unfolded in the department (state) of Putumayo which has long been subject to the de facto rule of guerrilla and paramilitary armies. The national government portrayed the area as uncivilized and disorderly and refused to see the coca growers as anything but criminals. Ramírez chronicles how the <i>cocaleros</i> demanded that the state recognize campesinos as citizens provide basic services and help them to transition from coca growing to legal and sustainable livelihoods.</div>