From: Colombian Labor Monitor <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: Sun, 5 Aug 2001 15:39:06 -0500 (CDT)
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: CLM: Weekend Digest 5 August 2001
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COLOMBIAN LABOR MONITOR
www.prairienet.org/clm
CHICAGO TRIBUNE -- Saturday, 4 August 2001
EDITORIAL
Spraying poison in Colombia
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* EDITORIAL *
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Spraying poison in Colombia
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Children in southern Colombia have developed sores on their skin. Potatoes
and onions, a staple of poor families in rural provinces there, are drying
out. Colombians have been stricken with bloody diarrhea from contaminated
drinking water.
Governors, senators, farmers, Indian groups and others from the region are
blaming those ailments, along with environmental and agricultural fallout,
on a U.S.-funded anti-narcotics program of aerial fumigation under way
there. The U.S. and Colombia dispute the claims that the local population
is at risk from an American-made chemical--glyphosate, used in herbicide
products like RoundUp--that is being sprayed to eradicate illegal crops of
coca and heroin poppy.
But the people on whom the stuff is falling disagree. They want it
stopped. They argue that it has harmed communities, livestock, fish and
food supplies.
The Bush administration should listen to them. The aerial spraying is a
centerpiece of its $1.3 billion Plan Colombia assault on cocaine and
heroin production in Colombia. However, after fumigating 128,000 acres of
coca, indications are the effort has only succeeded in pushing growers to
relocate their crops.
"All of us involved in this process are enemies of narcotrafficking,"
observed Gov. Parmenio Cuellar of Narino province, one of two governors
who recently visited Washington, with Colombian legislators, to lobby for
an end to aerial defoliation in their provinces. Instead, they propose a
program of manual eradication (such as spraying on the ground), combined
with alternative crop development programs. Cuellar said that despite
years of fumigation, the size of the coca crop in Colombia has continued
expanding. The U.S. General Accounting Office concluded the same thing in
a 1999 report.
As for Plan Colombia, Gov. Floro Alberto Tunubala Paja of Cauca province
said, "The great majority of Colombians don't agree with it because they
were not consulted." Colombia's human rights ombudsman, Eduardo Cifuentes
Munoz, has demanded a suspension of fumigation. He questions the lack of
an environmental management plan and information about the effects of the
chemicals used in the spray.
On top of that, now the United Nations has demanded an audit of the
crop-dusting, calling it "ineffective." Neighboring Ecuador has asked that
fumigation be kept 6 miles away from its border, due to concerns about the
spray drifting.
The health concerns are grave enough. But members of Congress increasingly
question U.S. military aid under Plan Colombia, given the Colombian
military's human rights record and its links with right-wing paramilitary
groups accused of committing 70 percent of the nation's political murders.
That violence has grown since U.S. aid started flowing.
President Bush and Colombian President Andres Pastrana invested much in
this policy, but it's becoming a disaster.
Bush came into office quite correctly questioning the value of waging war
on foreign drug traffickers without a strong program at home to quash
demand. What happened? If Plan Colombia proves anything, it's that
spending the money in the U.S.--on drug education and treatment
programs--would be wiser.
Copyright 2001 Chicago Tribune
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