WEEKLY NEWS UPDATE ON THE AMERICAS ISSUE #451
September 13, 1998

NICARAGUA SOLIDARITY NETWORK OF GREATER NEW YORK
339 LAFAYETTE ST., NEW YORK, NY 10012 (212) 674-9499

*4. US STEPS UP DRUG WAR PRESSURES ON COLOMBIA

On Sept. 16, the US House of Representatives voted 384 to 39 in
favor of H.R.4300, the House version of the Western Hemisphere
Drug Elimination Act (WHDEA), which would authorize $2.6 billion
for drug eradication and interdiction efforts in Latin America
and the Caribbean [see Update #450]. The bill would only
authorize the funding, which has yet to be appropriated.
Democratic representatives reportedly grumbled a bit over the
decision by House Speaker Newt Gingrich to allow the bill to
reach the House floor without committee hearings or approval, but
in the end joined their Republican colleagues in supporting it.
Urging Congress to "stop dumping our dollars on corrupt police,"
Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) introduced an amendment to delete the
bill's funding for Colombia and Mexico; her amendment was
defeated by a vote of 354 to 67. 
 
The vote in the House came just hours after Barry McCaffrey,
director of the White House Office of Drug Control Policy,
testified in the Senate against the Senate's version of the
measure, S.2341. McCaffrey said the bill was too expensive,
called its target of an 80% reduction in the flow of illegal
drugs into the US "completely unrealistic," and said the measure
would represent "micro-management of drug tactics based on a
shallow analysis of the problem and our available tools." The
Senate is expected to vote on the bill soon. More information
about the WHDEA, and opposition to it, is available at
. [Los Angeles Times 9/17/98;
New York Times 9/20/98; Colombia Support Network (CSN) Champaign-
Urbana Chapter Action Alert 9/17/98]
 
Approved with the House version of the WHDEA was an amendment
making Colombia ineligible for future US anti-drug aid if a
government troop pullout from five sprawling municipalities in
southern Colombia interferes with counternarcotics efforts in
those areas. The passage of this amendment has prompted new
president Andres Pastrana to schedule an impromptu stop in
Washington on Sept. 24 to meet with US legislators to explain his
plan for the troop pullout, which leftist rebels have set as a
condition for peace talks. Pastrana had already planned to
address the United Nations (UN) General Assembly in New York on
Sept. 23. 
 
National Police director Gen. Rosso Jose Serrano, who left for
his own US visit on Sept. 17 together with armed forces chief
Gen. Fernando Tapias, told reporters that the area marked for
demilitarization accounts for up to 12% of Colombia's illegal
opium and coca crops. 
 
In an interview with Colombian radio on Sept. 17, Defense
Minister Rodrigo Lloreda said the amendment was based on a series
of misunderstandings about the planned troop withdrawal. Lloreda,
who will join Pastrana in the Sept. 24 talks in Washington,
insisted that no anti-drug efforts in the area would be affected
by the troop pullout, which is expected to occur in early
November and remain in effect for at least 90 days. Lloreda added
that Colombia's US-backed drug crop eradication program--which
focuses on spraying herbicides on areas where drug crops are
grown--would not be affected since the program is concentrated on
areas outside of the demilitarized zone, where drug crops are
denser and more widespread. [Reuter 9/17/98]
 
*5. COLOMBIAN GOVERNMENT ADMITS ERADICATION POLICY "HAS 
FAILED"

Colombia's new anti-drug czar says the government is rethinking
the eradication program. Speaking in Bogota on Sept. 9 after
being sworn in as director of the Colombian government's anti-
narcotics office, Ruben Olarte Reyes noted that the total area of
coca crops had expanded despite what the National Police called
record eradication efforts last year. Olarte noted that Colombia
was estimated to have about 45,000 hectares of coca crops four
years ago; now there are 79,500 hectares, according to statistics
included in a US embassy statement at the start of 1998.
"Unfortunately, we have to recognize that crop eradication, in
the manner that it has been carried out so far, has failed," said
Olarte. "There is no doubt that there will have to be a profound
revision of the crop eradication program."
 
The United States has strongly backed Colombia's eradication
program by providing the country with donated aircraft, US crop
duster pilots and Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) advisers.
But Olarte, alluding to recent statements by President Andres
Pastrana, said the new government would be looking to come up
quickly with alternative strategies to the fumigation program.
[Reuter 9/9/98] According to Associated Press, Pastrana has
agreed that fumigation will continue but says he'll put greater
emphasis on programs to encourage campesinos who grow coca and
poppy crops to switch to legal crops. [AP 9/14/98]
 
Earlier this year, it was reported that the Colombian government
--under heavy US pressure--was switching from the use of the
liquid herbicide glyphosate in aerial fumigation to the granular
herbicide tebuthiuron (sold in the US under the name "Spike")
[see Update #438]. But the vigorous opposition of Dow Chemical,
the US manufacturer of the chemical, to the use of tebuthiuron in
aerial eradication in Colombia has reportedly prompted
embarrassed Colombian officials to postpone its use pending
further testing. [Council on Hemispheric Affairs (COHA) Press
Release 7/27/98]
 
In an interview with AP, Olarte said that the use, or even
testing, of tebuthiuron "is not on our agenda." "Experts of other
governments point to the benefits of this product but Colombia's
environmental authorities have concerns about testing it in
Andean tropical ecosystems," Olarte said. AP reports that the
announcement could cause tensions between the US government and
President Pastrana, who is scheduled to meet with US president
Clinton in Washington on Oct. 28. The US has been pushing for
tebuthiuron because it can be sprayed from higher altitudes and
at fast speeds in any conditions--reducing the danger from rebel
gunfire to crews flying crop-dusting planes and helicopters. [AP
9/14/98] [Several US pilots working for private companies on
contract with the US State Department have been killed while on
aerial fumigation missions--see Updates #444, 363.] 
 
The reports about Dow Chemical's opposition to the use of
tebuthiuron in Colombia, where environmentalists warn it will
cause severe and lasting damage to the rainforest ecosystems,
were first published in early May in an article by Tod Robberson
in the Dallas Morning News (the article also appeared in the San
Diego Union Tribune, on May 6). [SDUT 5/6/98] The New York Times
covered the tebuthiuron story on June 20 with an article by Diana
Jean Schemo which said that the Colombian government had agreed
to test the herbicide. [NYT 6/20/98] The Times article was picked
up by several other major US newspapers, prompting Colombian
officials to deny that any testing of tebuthiuron was taking
place. [DMN 6/26/98]
 
However, in late May the National Liberation Army (ELN) reported
in its weekly publication Correo del Magdalena that witnesses had
seen planes protected by helicopters drop a granular herbicide on
coca crops in the Caguan jungle in Caqueta department. "The
planes flew over and dropped something like the size of some
little pebbles on my coca," a campesino leader in the remote
municipality of Santo Domingo told the British news agency
Reuter, according to Correo del Magdalena. "In other areas they
were fumigating with the same liquid as always," added the
campesino, who complained that some of the "pebbles" had fallen
on his subsistence crops of plantain and yuca. A campesina in
Puerto Camelias, a small port town on the Caguan river, also said
she saw small capsules of herbicide, covered with an oily
substance. Gloria Elsa Ramirez, environmental delegate for the
Defender of the People's office, said the chemical could be
tebuthiuron, which comes in the form of pea-sized capsules.
[Correo del Magdalena II Epoca #78, 5/24-30/98]


More information is available at the Colombia Support Network-
Champaign-Urbana chapter (CSNCU) web site at
. [Text of the introduction of
the WHDEA from Congressional Record, posted by CSNCU]