Empire in the Andes

The documentary takes a critical look at the strategies and effects of US foreign and economic policy in Latin America, especially in Colombia and Ecuador. Since the introduction of Plan Colombia in 2000 and later the Andean Regional Initiative, billion dollar military aid packages with the public aims of reducing the trade in drugs and related violence, the Andean countries are becoming increasingly militarized and dangerous for local people, especially remote communities on the borders of Colombia with Ecuador and Venezuela. The film will trace how violence, and environmental degradation caused by fumigation of drug crops, are making people poorer while cocaine and heroin cultivation and trafficking continue.