Colombia announces resumption of aerial fumigation of coca, again
Colombia announces resumption of aerial fumigation of coca, again
by Adriaan Alsema January 1, 2020
Colombia’s government on Monday announced the resumption of the controversial aerial fumigation of coca with glyphosate for the second time in a year.
The use of glyphosate in areal spraying of coca is fiercely opposed by the leftist opposition, which wants to ban the chemical, but won’t return from its Christmas recess until March 16.
According to the Justice Ministry, “the reactivation of the spraying would increase the capacity of the Colombian state to confront drug trafficking, in less time and in a more effective way.”
Local counter-narcotics experts and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime have dismissed the method as ineffective and a waste of money.
The US State Department, however, welcomed the initiative on Tuesday, saying the decree was “a critical step toward integrating aerial coca eradication into Colombia’s comprehensive counternarcotics strategy.”
More:
https://colombiareports.com/colombia-announces-resumption-of-aerial-fumigation-of-coca-again/
= new reply since forum marked as read
and neighboring Ecuador, which gets airborn blowover from Colombia's industrial Roundup aerial spraying planes::
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Bush Policy of Spraying Poison on Children
redstatehatemonitor
Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)
Wednesday February 27, 2008 · 5:38 AM CST
School children from both Colombia and neighboring Ecuador actually drew these pictures included in this diary. The United States government's primary strategy for combating the narcotics industry and the leftist FARC guerillas that control an area of Colombia the size of SWITERLAND involves aerial crop spraying with a deadly poison sold on the market as Roundup weedkiller. The spray not only kills coca plants, but any other, legal, crops in the vicinity. Sadly it also kills livestock and far worse it has also killed many children.
Continue reading . . .
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2008/2/27/464886/
The Twisted Legacy of Colombia's Aerial Cocaine Crop Spraying Program
Over the last 21 years, the secretive and controversial US-backed drug war effort dumped weaponized herbicide on 4.3 million acres of land.
By Steven Cohen
Jun 1 2015, 1:45pm
After 30 years of dubious results and loud protests, the flagship of the supply-side drug war in North America has finally been brought to ground.
Last month, acting on the recommendations of President Juan Manuel Santos, Colombia's National Council on Dangerous Drugs (CNE) voted 7-1 to indefinitely suspend the aerial fumigation of coca, the plant precursor to crystal cocaine. Colombia has been the only drug-producing country in the world where the US-backed fumigation program still operated, and the move represents the Santos administration's first concrete step toward progressive drug reform. If the New York Times editorial board can be believed, ending fumigation may even mark a bellwether shift in Latin America away from Uncle Sam's anti-narcotics hardline.
But if fumigation's suspension is going to make a real difference, it should be recognized for what it is: not just a bad idea that got worse with age, but the centerpiece of a global drug war that has persisted through the stubbornness of proponents and their blaring disregard for the consequences on people and the environment.
In other words, what the hell took so long?
Coca fumigation was implemented in Colombia in 1994, at the behest of the United States and on America's dime. To the tune of roughly $2 billion, the secretive and controversial fumigation program has seen weaponized herbicide sprayed over some 4.3 million acres of Colombian territory, including national parks, waterways, and Amazonian rainforest.
More:
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/gqmgq4/why-did-it-take-so-long-for-colombia-to-stop-cocaine-fumigation-601