colombiaweek.org
On The Eve of Destruction

I've been receiving this newsletter for many months now but have rarely shared the content because it couldn't be linked. It's a great source of news on the region however and I'm glad to see Colombia Week finally has a website where the newsletters are archived.

Last week's issue looked at the ongoing travesty of fumigation programs being conducted in the country. These are the reports you don't get in the main stream media folks.

Even as the US State Department's Bureau for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement released a new report claiming the programs are a success, U.S. NGOs have criticized the report and the fumigation, noting social and environmental damage in Colombia and steady drug sales in the United States.

"At best, fumigation has caused a temporary dip in coca cultivation levels in Colombia," said Lisa Haugaard, executive director of the Latin America Working Group, based in Washington, D.C. "But the fact remains that fumigation has failed at its main goal, reducing cocaine availability and use here at home, and has devastated small Colombian farming communities in the process. The entire policy needs to be reconsidered." Her group as well as Earthjustice and the Inter-American Association for Environmental Defense are calling for an end to the spraying. SOURCES: Associated Press, 2/2/04; Bloomberg News, 3/4/04; El Tiempo, 3/1/04; One World, 2/27/04; United Press International, 3/1/04.

From the same issue, their Last Word says it all.

State Department figures from 2002 found a resulting 15 percent decline in Colombian coca cultivation, but also showed a 23 percent jump in Bolivian cultivation and an 8 percent jump in cultivation in Peru. Even within Colombia, spraying has spurred a balloon effect, spreading cultivation to provinces and regions previously free of coca, including Colombia's highly biodiverse national parks. The State Department has signaled its intent to begin fumigating Colombia's National Parks later this year.

Let me remind you once again, these fumigations left unchecked will destroy the heart and lungs of our ecosphere. Biodiversity is important to the survival of our species.