Plan
Colombia:
Bogotá
Court
Bars
Fumigation
of
Coca,
but
to
No
Avail,
Colombian
Governors
and
Legislators
Call
for
Alternatives
in
Washington
8/3/01
The US-backed effort to spray Colombia's coca crop into extinction took another hit late last week when a Colombian court ordered a temporary stop to the aerial spraying of the pesticide glyphosate. The spraying program has come under increasing criticism in recent weeks, both domestically and abroad. And even as uncertainty about the extent of the court decision gripped the Colombian and US governments, a high-ranking delegation of Colombian governors and legislators arrived in Washington to lobby against the spraying and for an alternative approach, which they call Plan Sur, or the Southern Plan. In the court case, a Bogotá district court ruled in favor of indigenous groups in the Amazon basin, who demanded a halt to the spraying because the government had failed to consult with them before spraying began and because it had not adequately studied glyphosate's human and environmental impact. "As a provisional measure, all aerial fumigation with glyphosate is ordered suspended," the court ruled. But that did not stop the Colombian drug warriors from going on their merry way. The following day, Gen. Gustavo Socha, chief of the anti-narcotics police, said his agency would ignore the court for the time being. "At this moment, the fumigations will have to continue," Socha told the Associated Press. "Once there is a final ruling, we will respect the decision of the court." The court-ordered suspension was to run for ten days, giving the government a chance to respond to queries from the court, but it has been eroded since then. Under strong political pressure from the administration and its US allies, the court earlier this week announced that the suspension would affect only "indigenous reserves" in limited Amazonian regions. The see-saw battle over last week's court ruling is only the latest example of the increasing turbulence afflicting the spraying program. Peasant riots and growing political dissent within Colombia, as well as increasingly loud criticism from the European Union, the United Nations, and moderate environmental groups such as the World Wildlife Fund, threaten to knock the legs out from under this pillar of Plan Colombia. Colombian dissent was visible in Washington, DC, this week as Governors Parmenio Cuellar of Narino and Floro Alberto Tunubalá Paja of Cauca and Colombian legislators Senators Rafael Orduz and Juan Manuel Ospina and Representative Gustavo Petro spent the last few days working the press, Congress and the Bush administration in an effort to end the crop spraying. The governors, whose states are in the midst of massive fumigation campaigns, have played an increasingly vocal role in attempting to persuade President Pastrana and the US to find alternatives to spraying. Last week, the governors met with Pastrana to urge a halt to the spraying and the adoption of the alternative Southern Plan, which they bill as a comprehensive plan for social and economic development that provides workable alternatives to coca and allows for manual -- not pesticide -- eradication of coca crops by agreement with growers. The Colombian legislators are all cosponsors of a bill that would suspend fumigation. Earlier this week Sen. Orduz sent an open letter to the US Congress saying: "You are debating the budget that would finance anti-narcotics strategy in the framework of Plan Colombia... As a Colombian Senator, it is my duty to express the concern of millions of Colombians regarding the continuation of fumigation... to eradicate illegal crops in Colombia." While in Washington, the delegation met with members of Congress, the State Department, the Office of Drug Control Policy and other official entities. DRCNet is attempting to procure accounts of those meetings. Meanwhile, the US-sponsored military build-up is gathering speed. Last week, the first three of 16 UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters arrived from the US. They will be used to ferry Colombian Army troops to coca fields deep within rebel territory. And within weeks, 14 new crop-dusting aircraft are scheduled to arrive.
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