How small-scale coca growers came together to oppose an eradication campaign by the Colombain government

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 cocaleros, small-scale coca producers and harvest workers. More than 200,000 campesinos marched that summer to protest the heightened threat to their livelihoods. Between the Guerrillas and the State is an ethnographic analysis of the cocalero 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 cocaleros demanded that the state recognize campesinos as citizens, provide basic services, and help them to transition from coca growing to legal and sustainable livelihoods.

"“It is refreshing to read accounts of grassroots resistance to the bullying of national governments that regard citizens as obstacles…. This compelling book makes a valuable contribution to the study of social movements while providing a nuanced understanding of what is really at stake when politicians in countries such as Colombia uncritically accept the narratives and agenda mouthed incessantly by their northern paymasters.”" - Latin American Review of Books

"“Between the Guerrillas and the State is...a rich and much-needed addition to our understanding of contemporary Colombia.” " - Hispanic American Historical Review

"“Between the Guerrillas and the State constitutes an insightful reminder that the 'political world' is rich with local and cultural meanings that are usually ignored in debates about public policy.”" - EIAL

"“In Between the Guerrillas and the State, Maria Clemencia Ramirez has written an excellent analytical description of the cocalero movement in the Putumayo province in the Colombian Amazon during the 1990s.”" - Contemporary Sociology