E/CN.4/2005/88/Add.2 page 14 47. After a brief boom in marijuana cultivation in the 1970s (the “bonanza marimbera”), the drug economy now centres on coca, although it must be said that, as in other Andean countries, traditional coca farming for local use has always been widely practised among Colombia’s indigenous communities. It is highly unlikely that there will be any decline in the commercial trade in psychotropic drugs as long as international demand continues to rise. 48. There is ample evidence that the paramilitary and guerrilla groups fund their activities with the income from drug trafficking; it is for this reason that the battle for control of these territories, and of strategic corridors such as Putumayo, which happen to be where the indigenous peoples live, is becoming increasingly violent, exacting an enormous human, social and cultural toll on these communities and indeed on the country as a whole. FARC moved into the Amazon region during the 1970s and the cultivation of illicit crops intensified in the 1980s, which in turn enabled the guerrillas to step up their action: between 1983 and 1990 the number of fronts increased from 27 to 60. In the late 1980s, the paramilitary self-defence groups arrived on the scene and challenged the guerrilla forces for control of coca production. AUC became increasingly active and was responsible for the Mapiripán massacre in 1997, in which members of the armed forces were also involved. 49. In the Government’s military policy, the fight against drug trafficking and the war on the guerrilla groups have gradually fused into a single strategy. This has led, in recent years, to a redrawing of the parameters of the internal armed conflict, which is no longer seen as a political and military conflict but is now considered a fight against “terrorism”. This has also affected the treatment of the indigenous peoples in conflict zones; their increasing opposition to militarization is sometimes seen by the military and political authorities as support for “terrorism”. According to the Latin American Human Rights Association (ALDHU), the pressure on the indigenous peoples is mounting, and the withdrawal of FARC, the spread of drug crops to their territories and the presence of paramilitaries and of large numbers of police have increased the threats and danger they face. 50. Several means are employed to eradicate illicit crops, but the Government concentrates mainly on spraying, which it considers to be the most efficient method. Colombia’s Minister for Foreign Affairs told the Special Rapporteur that, despite the criticism levelled at the Government over spraying, it still considers this method of combating the growing of illicit crops to be a “lesser evil” which must be accepted. Indigenous organizations described to the Special Rapporteur the adverse effects of indiscriminate spraying, including environmental damage to the topsoil, fauna, flora and water, the destruction of subsistence crops and direct damage to human health, including birth defects. The Special Rapporteur was also told that there are technical and scientific studies to substantiate these assertions. The indigenous peoples see the aerial spraying of coca plantations as yet another violation of their human rights and, save for a few occasions when they have given their consent, actively oppose the practice; this position again brands them as guerrilla sympathizers, as happened after the rights marches organized by certain indigenous communities to protest against the spraying. The Office of the Ombudsman has received 318 complaints concerning spraying operations in three municipalities in Putumayo in July 2002 and their effect on 6,070 families and 5,034 hectares of land.