WEEKLY NEWS UPDATE ON THE AMERICAS
ISSUE #438, JUNE 21, 1998
NICARAGUA SOLIDARITY NETWORK OF GREATER NEW YORK 339
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*2. US PUSHES DEFOLIANT ON COLOMBIA
A June 20 article in the New York Times reports that under heavy
pressure from the US, the Colombian government has agreed to use
the granular herbicide tebuthiuron--sold commercially as Spike 20P-
-in aerial fumigations against coca crops. In the US tebuthiuron is
used mostly to control weeds on railroad beds and under high-
voltage lines, far away from food crops and people. The US
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) requires a warning label on
tebuthiuron that says it could contaminate ground water. Colombian
environmental officials fear its use could prevent peasants from
growing food where coca once grew.
Washington has been lobbying Andean governments to accept
tebuthiuron for more than a decade. For four years, Colombian and
US police officials have used a liquid toxin, glifosate, to destroy coca
plants, at a cost of millions of dollars to the US. Glifosate has
reportedly destroyed some 30% of the plants sprayed, although the
total amount of coca being grown has increased. Luiz Eduardo Parra,
environmental auditor of Colombia's anti-narcotics squad, said the
glifosate has mostly been washed away in the heavy rainfall of the
Amazon region. But the main reason officials want to switch to
tebuthiuron pellets is because they can be dropped from higher
altitudes in virtually any weather, thus providing greater protection
from rebel gunfire for pilots, who are currently forced to fly low to
fumigate in the early morning hours, when winds are calm and
temperatures are lower. [NYT 6/20/98]
According to an article in the conservative weekly magazine US News
& World Report, the FARC has attacked crop-spraying planes 159
times in the past three years, killed 44 anti-drug agents, and
wounded 75 others. [USNWR 5/11/98] US pilot Robert Martin died in
January 1997 when his plane crashed while on a flight to spray
glifosate on coca crops in Guaviare department. Martin was working
for the Colombian police under a US State Department contract. At
the time, National Police director Gen. Rosso Jose Serrano admitted
that the police had lost two fumigation planes and five fumigation
helicopters to accidents or guerrilla attacks during anti-drug
operations over the previous two years. [See Update #363.]
Dow AgroSciences, a subsidiary of Dow Chemical Co. and the
manufacturer of tebuthiuron, strongly opposes its use in Colombia.
"Tebuthiuron is not labeled for use on any crops in Colombia, and it is
our desire that the product not be used for coca eradication as well,"
the company said in a statement. Tebuthiuron granules should be
used "carefully and in controlled situations," Dow cautioned, because
"it can be very risky in situations where terrain has slopes, rainfall is
significant, desirable plants are nearby and application is made
under less than ideal circumstances."
Dow, which faced years of lawsuits and public protest over the use of
its Agent Orange defoliant during the Vietnam war, said that if
approached, it would refuse to sell tebuthiuron for use in Colombia.
However, US officials note that Dow's patent on the chemical has
expired, allowing others to manufacture it legally.
Colombian environmental minister Eduardo Verano also argues
against using tebuthiuron on farming areas, arguing that its health
effects are unknown and that its use will only increase deforestation
by pushing coca growers deeper into the jungle. But US officials,
backed by Colombian police, say the benefits outweigh the
environmental risks. Based on its research in Hawaii, Panama and
Peru, the US Agriculture Department claims that tebuthiuron would
persist in Colombian soil for less than a year.
In March, the State Department's acting assistant secretary of state
for international narcotics and law enforcement affairs, Rand Beers,
outlined a plan to increase fumigation in the southern provinces of
Caqueta and Putumayo, and asked Congress to pump $21 million
more into the $30 million counter-narcotics budget for Colombia this
year. The new strategy draws the Colombian military further into the
war on drugs, while sharpening US attention on the Colombian
military's main priority: its 40-year counter-insurgency war against
leftist rebels, particularly the Revolutionary Armed Forces of
Colombia (FARC). "The kind of thing you want to do is go after the
rebels' base of support," explained an unnamed US intelligence
analyst.
Col. Leonardo Gallego, counter-narcotics chief of the Colombian
National Police, denied that increased fumigation was part of any
plan to strike at the guerrillas. The "primary objective" was
destroying coca and recovering the environment destroyed through
coca farming, he said. "Whatever other goals are achieved through
these operations is completely secondary, and would be solely the
result of any ties between guerrillas and growers," said Gallego.
Leonardo Garcia of the FARC's international commission warns that
intensive eradication in the group's strongholds will lead to open
warfare. Garcia claims that the rebels support coca growers out of
political necessity: "The campesino has the right to defend himself
and to defend the only thing he has to survive on- -his plot of land,"
Garcia said. "People themselves go in search of weapons. So what can
we do? We're going to fight." [NYT 6/20/98]
A classified report by the US Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA)
noted that the Colombian military recently suffered a series of
humiliating defeats at the hands of the FARC, and warns that if the
military continues to lose ground, the Colombian government may be
forced within five years to make an unfavorable "accommodation"
with the guerrillas, such as recognizing the FARC's control over the
southern half of Colombia and effectively partitioning the country.
This specter has provoked the administration of US president Bill
Clinton to push for an increase in anti-narcotics aid to Colombia, up to
what US News & World Report says would be about $100 million a
year. Some Republicans in Congress also want to send three more
UH-60 Blackhawk helicopters, at a cost of about $50 million. [USNWR
5/11/98]
*3. COLOMBIANS CHOOSE PRESIDENT IN RUNOFF
On June 21, Colombians go to the polls to choose a new president in a
runoff election. The two candidates are Horacio Serpa Uribe of the
ruling Liberal Party and Andres Pastrana Arango of the Conservative
Party. Both candidates claim they support efforts to end Colombia's
armed conflict, and both say they have accepted a three-point
proposal made by the National Liberation Army (ELN), Colombia's
second-largest leftist rebel organization. The proposal commits each
of the two candidates to support concrete measures for peace,
whether they win or lose. The measures include acceptance of a FARC
demand to pull the military out of five municipalities in southern
Colombia. Colombian president Ernesto Samper Pizano had previously
refused to consider this demand; on June 12 he announced he was
willing to discuss pulling the military out of one of the five
municipalities. [El Diario-La Prensa 6/18/98 from AFP]
In a June 15 communique from the "Mountains of Colombia," the
FARC-People's Army (FARC-EP) scorned Samper's announcement as
an electoral ploy designed to gain votes for Serpa. Serpa has done
nothing for peace while serving in Liberal governments for the past
12 years, the FARC says, and he "was the first to get up and leave the
dialogue in Tlaxcala (Mexico)." [FARC Communique 6/15/98]
Former Antioquia governor Alvaro Uribe Velez announced on June
14 that he is backing Serpa. The news sparked a controversy, since
Uribe was the creator of the legalized paramilitary groups known as
"Convivir," and he opposes all dialogue with leftist rebels. Many
observers feel that Uribe's support may cost Serpa votes. [ED-LP
6/15/98 from AP]
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