Documentary Film -- Plan Colombia: Cashing In on the Drug War Failure

This 2004 film is still largely relevant. It discusses a dangerous hypocrisy, aided by the American government, in which Colombia, as the world's biggest cocaine exporter, gives rise to an illegal drug trade. The funding of the trade by radical factions, a corrupt government at the time, and the fact that most farmers harvest coca because they can't survive on the profits of legitimate food crops all combine for a disastrous plan depicted in the film. "Plan Colombia" also deals with the connection to the School of the Americas, as well as the destruction of legal natural resources by aerial fumigation in the name of eradicating drug crops. The latter situation of crop fumigation has been somewhat improved since the film was made, but the U.S. military-industrial complex continues to cash in on the violence they themselves perpetrate, while still doing little to actually stem cocaine production in Colombia.

The film is 57 minutes. It was directed by Gerald Ungerman and narrated by Ed Asner.