For nearly 40 years, Colombia has been torn apart by "La Violencia". Unintended consequences of the fighting included international terrorism, destruction of the rule of law nationwide, diversion of the country's oil resources, environmental devastation and the rise of the illegal drug trade. Insurgent guerilla groups such as FARC and ELN control large tracts of valuable land while paramilitary organizations brutally terrorize the population. Rural peasants face the worst of the violence and many become internally displaced persons, unable to receive international humanitarian aid because they remain within their own country. In response to a 1999 request from Colombia's president, the United States pledged $1.3 billion in aid to Colombia's federal government, mainly to help eradicate the coca crop that is processed into cocaine. This assistance was known as Plan Colombia. In 2002, the plan was re-named the Andean Regional Initiative.

Based on your reading, should the United States continue funding the Andean Regional Initiative? If yes, discuss to what extent and for how long? If no, what alternative do you propose? In either case, please explain your reasoning.

Brazil is the world's leading producer of coffee, a trade that involves almost all of Latin America as either producers or importers. Small farmers still use the traditional technique of growing coffee plants in the shade of larger trees, often in rainforests, on farms called shade plantations. Commercial growers cut down the forests to create larger farms that require irrigation, fertilizers and pesticides but produce much higher crop yields; these are known as sun plantations. Ecologists have determined a definite link between migratory bird habitats and shade coffee plantations in Latin America. No one disputes the negative environmental impacts of sun plantation coffee but the economic incentives for them are great. Most of Mexico's coffee producers remain shade plantations but as global coffee prices fluctuate, there is growing pressure on them to convert to sun plantations.

The next time you go to the grocery store, make a list of available brands of coffee and research which corporations produce them. Are these companies pursuing ecologically sensitive practices? How effective is a personal boycott of corporate products? Is it worth paying more for coffee produced by smaller companies? Why?