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Cover
story Colombias Drug War
By LUIS ANGEL SAAVEDRA
On the Colombia/Ecuador border
The day terrorists attacked the
World Trade Center and the Pentagon Sept. 11, U.S. Secretary of State Colin
Powell was scheduled to visit Colombia to assess progress in another
anti-terrorist campaign, the war on drugs.
Powell had to cancel his trip as, inevitably, Colombia and
international drug trafficking took a back seat to the war in Afghanistan and
efforts to counter biological terrorism in the United States.
The shift in priorities has some in Colombia worried, particularly
since the Colombian government has resumed spraying herbicide on coca and poppy
crops --sources of cocaine and opium -- along the countrys southern
border with Ecuador.
Those who oppose the spraying worry that the U.S. war against
global terrorism could prompt the United States to step up its support of
President Andres Pastrana and his efforts to counter insurgent rebel groups,
who often finance their operations by trafficking drugs. Three of 31 groups
recently named by Washington as foreign terrorist organizations are based in
Colombia.
Pastrana himself, concerned about waning support in Washington,
was to visit officials there Nov. 8-11 seeking more support for Plan Colombia,
the recipient of $1.3 billion in U.S. aid so far. A recession in Colombia,
prompted by a precipitous drop in the price of coffee, Colombias economic
mainstay, threatens to bring social unrest and increased support for armed
rebel organizations in the months ahead.
Meanwhile, the spraying goes on, despite complaints that the
action is ineffective in fighting drug crops, endangers local residents and
causes extensive harm to food crops and livestock.
On July 27, Bogotá Civil Circuit Judge Gilberto Reyes
Delgado ordered a temporary halt to the spraying of poppy and coca crops in
response to a complaint filed by the Organization of Indigenous Peoples of the
Colombian Amazon. He lifted the suspension Aug. 6, however, saying there was no
evidence that the herbicide was harmful to human health or the environment.
That decision came after Anne Patterson, U.S. ambassador to Colombia, warned
that the suspension had jeopardized U.S. aid.
The spraying, accomplished largely with U.S. equipment, has drawn
protest from various international organizations, including the United
Nations.
Pastrana has much at stake. He was elected three years ago on his
promise to achieve a cease-fire in the countrys 37-year-long, drug-funded
civil war.
The United States, too, has much at stake. Colombia, a democracy,
under siege, is the primary source of illegal drugs in the United States.
The war in Colombia, involving government security forces,
right-wing paramilitaries and left-wing guerillas, has claimed more than 35,000
lives in the last 10 years and left some 1.2 million people displaced. Both
right- and left-wing groups finance operations by trafficking drugs.
Plan Colombia was intended primarily as an intense development
program aimed at ending the violence that has plagued the country, especially
in the past 10 years. In addition to spraying, the program offers financial
incentives to coca farmers who replace their illegal crops with legal ones.
Critics, though, say that spraying with herbicides has in fact
thwarted the very development it aims to boost. Further, some critics in
Colombia, including some Catholic bishops, see the plan as a U.S. attempt to
consolidate its political, economic and military power in the area.
They want to steamroll over Putumayo, to wipe everything
out, then theyll come with their oil-drilling rigs, pipelines and
highways and, despite the hunger and poverty, say theyre rebuilding
civilization, said Bishop Gonzalo López of Sucumbíos, the
Ecuadorian province that borders Putumayo, where the bulk of Colombias
coca cultivation is done.
If they say 3 percent is for human rights and legal reform
and no more than 10 percent is for development of the region, and that the rest
goes for helicopters, soldiers, military advisers and spraying of coca crops,
theyre not talking about a peace plan or a development plan, said
López.
Of the U.S. aid to Colombia, 70 percent is earmarked for military
equipment and training to counter the drug trade -- mostly for helicopters and
training for Colombias counternarcotics troops. The helicopters, which
provide protective cover for crop dusting planes, are an important part of
Colombias spraying campaign.
Further, the Bush administration has proposed an additional
$882.3-million plan called the Andean Regional Initiative that would provide
more aid to Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Venezuela, Brazil and Panama.
While the funds would be almost evenly split between development programs and
counternarcotics aid, critics in the Andean region say it will promote more
spillover of the violence in Colombia, destabilizing the entire region.
Coca spraying that began in December has focused on the Putumayo
area, where guerrillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia -- known
by its Spanish initials, FARC -- and right-wing paramilitaries allegedly
protected by the Colombian military both control large areas where coca is
planted.
According to Gabriel Martínez, political attaché at
the Colombian Embassy in Ecuador, the coca crop spraying carried out December
through February after Plan Colombia went into effect destroyed 20,000 hectares
of coca, equivalent to about 254,000 doses of cocaine. Some 150,000 gallons of
glyphosate, under the commercial name Roundup Ultra, were used.
Ironically, according to the Catholic bishops in the Colombian
border provinces of Ipiales and Tumaco, Bishops Arturo Correo and Gustavo
Girón, as well as Fr. Alfonso Palacios, apostolic vicar of Putumayo,
coca cultivation increased during the recent round of spraying, because local
farmers, forewarned of the eradication effort, planted more crops as a hedge
against damage.
Palacios said the spraying has also damaged traditional food and
commercial crops including coffee, bananas and cassava. He added that the coca
plants were well protected, either under plastic tents, by spraying
molasses on the leaves or by cutting the roots before they could absorb the
chemicals. ... They sprayed 30,000 hectares, but no more than 10 percent of
that was planted in coca.
The bishops voiced their concerns at the Tenth Border Ministry
Conference in June. The meeting drew representatives of dioceses along the
Colombian-Ecuadorian border. The conference ended with a statement in which the
bishops expressed their rejection of Plan Colombia, especially the aerial
spraying. The bishops said they support eradication of coca and poppy crops,
but with procedures that respect the ecosystem, biodiversity and
especially human life.
In the municipality of Valle del Guamez in Putumayo between late
December and February, there were reports that 4,289 people suffered from
chemical poisoning, rashes and other skin problems, as well as vomiting and
diarrhea caused by inhaling or coming into contact with the herbicide. In
addition, 178,377 animals were reported affected, along with 7,252 hectares of
coca, banana, cassava, corn, rice and coffee, according to local police.
In the first two months of this year, in the municipality of San
Miguel, also in Putumayo, there were 1,443 complaints of symptoms. Of these,
1,164 -- 80 percent -- said that one or more family members had been affected
by the spraying.
Its hard to
breathe
About an hour after the planes go over, we start smelling
something like gasoline. Its hard to breathe, said Kléver
Aguinda, a peasant farmer from San Miguel. Then we get headaches, as if
we had a hangover, and our eyes burn. Then the kids start crying and feel sick.
Then comes the fever.
Colombias minister of the environment, Juan Mayer, said he
was unaware of harm to humans or the environment caused by the spraying with
Roundup Ultra. He also downplayed the herbicides toxicity. But according
to a study by biologist Elsa Nivia, executive director of Rapalmira Colombia, a
branch of the international Pesticide Action Network, the combination of
glyphosate, POEAs (polyoxyethylamines, a surfactant compound) and Cosmo-Flux
gives the compound 22 times the toxicity of glyphosate alone, making it
hazardous to health even in the 1 percent concentration commonly used in the
United States. According to Nivia, concentrations as high as 26 percent are
used in Colombia.
Cosmo-Flux, a product of Britains Imperial Chemical
Industries, makes the glyphosate less likely to be blown in the wind and more
likely to adhere to the crops.
Nivia said her information is based on technical data provided by
Monsanto Co., which manufactures Roundup Ultra. The symptoms described in
the manufacturers studies correspond to those reported in Valle del
Guamez, she said.
Because of Roundups toxicity and high rate of dispersion,
the instructions advise that it be applied from a distance of no more than 30
centimeters from the target. In Colombia, however, the spraying is done from
light aircraft. According to the Rapalmira study, with aerial spraying, 41
percent of the herbicide drifts away from the target, a proportion that can
rise to 85 percent if winds are strong. This, researchers say, is what is
happening along the Colombian-Ecuadorian border in Putumayo.
When our glyphosate products are used according to
directions, they have a long history of safe use, said Janice Armstrong,
corporate spokesperson for Monsanto. Although the company has a policy of not
disclosing to whom it sells its products, Armstrong said glyphosate is used in
more than 130 countries around the world.
The glyphosate herbicides that we market have one of the
most extensive worldwide human health, safety and environmental data bases ever
compiled for a pesticide product, and our glyphosate herbicides have been
thoroughly reviewed and registered by the EPA and by regulatory agencies around
the world, Armstrong said
A study carried out on the Ecuador side of the border by the
Quito-based environmental organization Acción Ecológica found the
same symptoms the Rapalmira study reported among residents of indigenous
communities in the provinces of Sucumbíos and Orellana.
The symptoms appeared after a dense cloud came, with a
strong odor, that made our eyes burn, according to Abelardo Sáez,
a leader of a farmers organization in Puerto Aguarico in
Sucumbíos.
In April 38 peasant organizations that form the Union of
Associations of Orellana and Sucumbíos denounced the harm to their crops
and their health from the spraying in Colombia. Neither the Health
Ministry nor the Agriculture Ministry nor the military has wanted to
listen, Sáez said.
Acción Ecológica registered the complaints as part
of its studies of the effects of the spraying on six border communities in
Sucumbíos, located two, five and 10 kilometers from the site of the
spraying in Colombia. We wanted to identify the pathologies most common
in the population affected by the spraying and analyze them in relation to
their distance from the sites of the spraying, said Dr. Adolfo Maldonado,
who coordinated the study.
The study was based on toxicological information from 144 of the
2,000 community members. That data was crossed with information from the
hospital in Lago Agrio, the capital of Sucumbíos, and health centers
operated by the San Miguel diocese, as well as observations of environmental
damage in the communities.
The researchers found that 100 percent of the community members
within two kilometers of the spraying sites showed the same symptoms as the
Colombians at the site, as did all the residents of communities five kilometers
from the site. At 10 kilometers, the incidence dropped to 89 percent.
Losses to other crops
According to Acción Ecológica, the communities also
suffered losses in their coffee harvests, which were down by as much as 90
percent from the normal level. Farmers said the plants flowered but fruit did
not form. The farmers reported that between 85 and 90 percent of the rice crop
was also lost.
Martínez of the Colombian Embassy in Ecuador questioned the
credibility of the Acción Ecológica study. Similar
illnesses existed before the spraying, and they are only problems endemic to
tropical regions. Similarly, substantial crop losses occur because of poor crop
management, he said.
The U.S. State Department and Colombian officials have suggested
that drug traffickers or the nations rebel insurgents are the source of
the complaints. The State Department said in a statement, We believe that
the illegal armed forces are the source of many of the complaints. These groups
receive vast sums of money from narcotraffickers to protect illicit crops and
therefore have a significant interest in maintaining opposition to the spray
program.
However, Sáez said, Ive lived on the border for
30 years and have never seen ... the illnesses were seeing now. I want
reparation for the damages and harm this has caused us, for our childrens
illnesses, for our burned crops, for our dead animals. We dont want [the
government] to improve our income; we just want it to let us survive. We
dont want to pay for something we havent done.
Maldonado also disputed the Colombian diplomats claims.
If we have a series of pathologies that occur with great frequency near a
particular point and decrease as the distance from that point increases, it
means there is -- or was -- something at that point. Thats just common
sense, especially if the symptoms differ completely from pathologies found in
other areas with similar characteristics, he said.
After the report by Acción Ecológica was released,
the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador called on government
officials to visit the zone. While the administration of President Gustavo
Noboa refused to schedule a visit, in July it sent a diplomatic message to
Colombia asking that the neighboring country abstain from aerial spraying
with glyphosate in areas located less than 10 kilometers from the
border.
Also in July, the United Nations asked the Colombian government to
halt aerial spraying and to stop using glyphosate in areas populated by
indigenous groups. But Martínez said the spraying in Putumayo was
focused on industrial coca plots in areas controlled by right-wing
paramilitaries.
It isnt true that 100 percent of the population has
been affected. It isnt true that the aim has been to harm indigenous
communities. Nor is it true that legal crops are these communities
economic mainstay. The spraying must be understood as necessary in the context
of the Colombian conflict, Martínez said.
Pastrana, the Colombian president, has made it clear he plans to
continue the spraying and extend it to poppy crops in the Andean province of
Nariño.
Colombia at a glance |
Location: Northern South America, bordering the
Caribbean Sea, between Panama and Venezuela. Population: 40.3
million Area: 439,700 square miles, about the size of
Texas Capital: Bogotá Religion: Roman Catholic, 90
percent Leading legal exports: coffee, oil Government:
Republic, with dominant executive branch. President, vice president elected by
popular vote for four-year terms. Independence: July 20, 1810, from
Spain Political issues: A 40-year campaign by insurgents to overthrow
the Colombian government escalated in the 1990s, in part with support from
illegal drug trade. Large sections of the country are under guerilla influence.
Neighboring countries worry about violence spilling over as the government
tries to broker peace with rebel groups. Economic factors: Lack of
public security is a major impediment to investment. President Andres Pastrana
is seeking continued international support for his efforts to achieve peace
with insurgents and boost the economy. International issues: Colombia
is a leading producer of illegal drugs, supplying about 90 percent of the
cocaine consumed in the United States, it is also a major supplier of heroin to
the U.S. market. Source: CIA World Factbook |
Related Web sites |
Acción
Ecológica www.ecuanex.net.ec/accion
Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of
Ecuador www.conaie.org
Monsanto Company www.monsanto.com
National Federation of Coffee Growers of
Colombia www.juanvaldez.com
Pesticide Action Network
International www.pan-international.org
U.S. Department of State -- Plan
Colombia usinfo.state.gov/regional/ar/Colombia |
Previous NCR articles about Colombia |
Catholic groups join U.N. in push to end small arms trade,
July 27, 2001 Cover story: Uwas vs. Oxy, Sept.
8, 2000 Panama owns canal, related headaches: Concerns include U.S.
military debris, spillover from Colombias civil war, May 5,
2000 Analysis: Doubts multiply about U.S. aid to Colombia, April 14,
2000 Analysis: In Colombia, violence is a way of life, Oct 1,
1999 Church leads Colombian peace campaign, June 5,
1998 Delegation visits Colombia to devise plan to curb violence,
March 27, 1998 Nun caught in Colombias cruel war, Nov. 14,
1997 Economics fuels return of La Violencia: Colombias
religious human rights groups seek end to slaughter, Oct. 24,
1997 |
Luis Angel Saavedra writes from Ecuador. The story was
translated for NCR by Barbara Fraser, editor of Latinamerca
Press.
National Catholic Reporter, November 16,
2001
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